


Rehabilitating the Faith

by MrzGrumpy



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Persona 5 Spoilers, Persona 5: The Royal, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, There will be fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:15:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28213785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrzGrumpy/pseuds/MrzGrumpy
Summary: P5R SPOILERS!!!It was just 2 days after her sister passed away. Sumire felt more and more depressed as she wants her pain to end.Sumire couldn't handle the grief anymore and wished it would all end, and worst of all, a being that looked like her tried to kill her in her dream.If she cannot overcome this ordeal, her life may come to an abrupt end.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Kurusu Akira/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Persona 5 Protagonist & Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Persona 5 Protagonist/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Yoshizawa Sumire & Other(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 59





	1. Doubt in Faith

It was two days after her sister passed away. She couldn’t bring herself to sleep. She couldn't bring herself to eat. She couldn't bring herself to shower. Time felt like it was barely passing. Her eyes were all watery, with her cheeks full of dry tears. She couldn’t bring herself to shower either. She didn’t care about this at all, though, because it was  _ her  _ that caused her sister to die.

‘She died because of an idiot like me... Because of someone as useless as me... Why was it her that had to die when I should’ve been the one that I died? She was better than me in every regard; I’m sure mom and dad loved her more and-’

She couldn’t hold it anymore. She started crying once again. She tried her best not to sob out loud, but she could barely contain herself. Even now, she was a failure. Shortly after, however, there was a knock on her door.

“Sumire, mind if we come in?” The voice belonged to none other than her mom.

She stopped sobbing as she went to put away her glasses first. She went to wipe her eyes to hide the fact that she had been crying, after which she went to sit up on the bed.

“C-Come on in...” She said weakly. At this point, she didn’t have much resolve to continue.

Her parents gently opened the door as they entered her room. Not much was different in the room, except there was a gloomy and tense atmosphere creeping around upon seeing the state their kid was in. Their hearts were filled with sorrow that they could barely stop themselves from leaking out to Sumire.

Her mom gently went to sit next to her while her dad decided to talk while standing up instead. She held her hand towards Sumire’s shoulder, trying to force a smile to cheer her up, but in reality, she felt broken to see her daughter in this state.

“Sumire, my dear, we’re worried about you. You cannot keep going like this. It hurts my heart to see you beating yourself up this much.”

“Yeah.. please, Sumire. We’ll be there for you whenever you need us to, but we want you to visit a counselor that I had arranged for you... That is if you want to."

She looked up at them with her eyes still a bit watery. It’s not that she didn’t want to. But… there’d be no reason to go because of the... Things she wanted to do. At least it would’ve meant that her pain would end and that she would not have to be burdened with it anymore longer.

“I-I’m sorry, Mom...Dad...b-but...I don’t want to go...I-I know you want the best of me b-but...I-I’ll be fine...I-I just...n-need time alone..”

Her constant stuttering and weak voice-only put more pain in both parents as they could no longer hide their sadness. They wanted to help her out, though, so they weren’t going to give up on her just yet.

“Please, my dear. I heard he is the best at helping people out. You would feel much better if you went to visit him.”

Sumire went silent as she looked down. What should she do..? She wanted to avoid making her parents sad, but something was stopping her...Something didn’t want her to go. Maybe it was because of how...The things she wanted to do seemed more...Appealing to her. But it would also mean...

“Um.... I-I’ll think about it, mom.... I-is that okay..?” She said this as she was still looking down.

“Yeah, take your time Sumire.... But please take care of yourself as well. You hadn’t been taking care of yourself for two days. We’ll eat dinner soon, so come to eat with us after you shower, okay?”

She gave a simple nod, to which both of her parents smiled and left her room. She went to lay down in her bed for a moment to clear her thoughts.... But she didn’t want to keep delaying the inevitable any longer. She left her room as she prepared to take a shower... She tried to make it quick, but it felt like it would last like an eternity.

She turned on the hot water as she thought maybe she could be more comfortable with it... But that wasn’t the case. The image of Kasumi jumping in front of her--

She held her head as that image struck her once again. 

“SUMIRE!”

That voice echoed through her mind as she couldn’t hold it in anymore... She started crying in the shower too. She didn’t want to live anymore. She desperately wanted to take away her life so that she would no longer feel...

But at the same time, there were her parents too. She didn’t want to make them sadder than she had to because of her failures...

She pushed through those ideas as best as she could as she tried to make it through the shower quickly. But she knew that, in reality, she was taking way too long.

After what felt like an eternity in the water, she went to leave the shower and put on her clothes once again. She looked in the mirror as she was slowly making her hair... But suddenly, bloodstain appeared on her clothes as she froze and started sweating for a moment. She blinked three times in panic, only to see that it was just her imagination.

‘I-I’m probably tired... I just have to eat…’

She finished making her hair and looked for her glasses, having a bit of difficulty finding them as she forgot where she had put them.

‘Even at a simple task like this, I’m a failure..’

She went out of the bathroom, just in time for her mother to call her name. It seems she was on time somehow... But she could swear that she took way too long in the shower... Or was it just her?

Dinner, on the other hand, wasn’t anything special... She still didn’t feel too hungry, but she no longer wanted to make her parents sad and push through to eat.. She felt herself getting slightly hungrier and hungrier as she slowly forced herself to eat, her appetite opening up in the process. She didn’t realize how hungry she must have been as she started to eat a bit faster. Her parents were sighing in relief to see that at least she was improving slowly.

“Sumire, my dear, did you decide?”

She stopped eating for a moment as she slowly dropped the fork and looked up at her mom and dad.

“I-I’m sorry... I know you two want the best of me but.. I-I don’t want to go... A-at least, not yet... Is that o-okay?”

“You want to go later, Sumire?” Her dad looked a bit confusedly at her, as he wasn’t expecting that type of response.

“M-Mhm... W-When I f-feel better..”

Her voice was still weak, but it was slightly louder than how she was in her room.

“If you insist, dear.. I’ll postpone it to a later date in that case. Are you sure you want to go later?”

“I-I’m sure..” She tried to force a smile. Although she did smile, it was small and... It was filled with pain and grief, as her parents could tell quickly, but they didn’t want to push her on this any more further as they just nodded in response, prompting her to continue eating at the pace she was previously eating.

After she had finished, she went back to her room, not realizing how fast the time had passed as she was deep in her thoughts once again... She wasn’t crying anymore, but she still felt a lot of pain in her chest. A pain that felt like it was bringing her down. She closed her eyes... But shortly after, she felt a presence next to her as she panicked suddenly and looked around in her room... Only to see herself.

“It is your fault that she died... Because you were a failure in every regard!”

She panicked a bit, seeing... Herself..? Talking back to her like that. She couldn’t respond, as she did have a point.

“..It’d be better off if you just died. So I’ll do that for you!”

The figure with the yellow eyes approached her as Sumire felt like her body couldn’t move, breathing more and more heavily as the figure came towards her with a creeping smile, the figure close enough to put her hands on her throat--

Sumire gasped in pain as she woke up from her bed, panting as she looked around in her room. There wasn’t anything in her room at all. But she was tearing up as that felt real... Too real.

She put her head back on her pillow once again as she tried to sleep while silently crying.

  
  


Sumire woke up because of her phone alarm as today was the first day of high school. She was given the status of an honor student due to her rough training regime. She found it weird, however, to stand out like that... Even worse, she may get attention in the wrong way when she just wanted to be seen as normal in high school. She insisted that she wasn’t given this status, but all it caused was to put more pressure on her in the process.

‘..Huh? 2 minutes passed already? I should go dress up quickly for my school... I don’t want to be late on my first day.’

She left her house after she was done eating breakfast and went to the train station. It felt weird that there were some eyes on her as she made her way to the train station.

‘I-It’s probably because of my gymnastics nature... No one has a reason to care for a failure like me otherwise…’ On the train platform, however, she felt even more eyes staring at her... Particularly those with the same uniform as her. She tried her best to ignore those as she looked forward, waiting for the train for what felt like an eternity as it finally arrived. She hastily got on the train as she looked for a place to sit in, much to her surprise she managed to find an empty spot. She wished there was something she could read.. Or listen to as the train ride felt even longer than waiting for the train to arrive. 

‘I wish Kasumi was here... At least I could’ve had someone to talk to while I’m waiting for the time to pass..’

She felt more eyes on her aboard the train as she tried to hide her face using her hair so that people could not see her. If this kept up any longer, she wouldn’t be able to contain her tears anymore.

‘K-Kasumi..’

She felt like she was close to tearing up as she also remembered that nightmare she had last night as the train announcer spoke, putting her out of her trance.

“Now arriving at Aoyama-Ichtome.”

She hastily got up from her seat and made her way out of the train, but something didn’t felt right.

‘Of course, I had to forget my umbrella... I really am an idiot..’

She looked somewhere to cover from the rain desperately, finding one in the process as her hair got slightly wet... But she didn’t care about it that much as she went to try her hair out. A boy arrived shortly after as he looked at her for a few moments before Sumire noticed the boy staring at her as she was a bit confused.

“..W-What is it..?” She said out weakly, to which the boy removed a leaf from her hair, prompting her to blush very slightly.

“You should go take better care of yourself, you know.”

He had a bit of messy hair with some glasses as he just stared normally at Sumire with a tiny smirk, prompting her to blush a bit more.

“I-I’m fine... B-But thank you..”

“It’s my pleasure.”

The two of them continued to wait as a car arrived shortly after, with a man smiling.

“You’re Sumire Yoshizawa, correct? Mind if I drop you off, Honors Student?”

The boy next to her raised an eyebrow as he looked at the man, but even more surprisingly...

“No, t-there’s no need... I-I’ll be there myself..”

“Well, suit yourself. And what about you?” He said, looking at the boy next to her.

“No, thanks.”

“Alright, have it your way, you two.”

He closed up the window of the car as he went to drive off as she continued to wait for the rain to stop, shortly after a blonde-haired kid arrived as he tried to run after the car, stopping quickly as he realized it’d be pointless.

“Tch, that bastard Kamoshida... Acting like the king of a castle..”

He then turned to look at the two of them as he stared at them, frowning his eyes towards them.

“You two aren’t planning on ratting me out to him or some shit, are you!?”

“..Huh? I-I d-don't..!"

The red hair started panicking as she was suddenly getting accused of something she didn’t even know about, but the boy next to her quickly spoke up.

“I think what she meant to say is, we don’t know what you are talking about, buddy.”

“...Huh? For real!? In the car there was Kamoshida... Wait, you don’t know him!?”

“..Of course, I don’t. I’m a transfer student. You go to Shujin too?”

“Ooh, right... Yeah, I do. Are you new here as well?”

“..H-Huh? M-Me..? U-Um.. y-yes, I-I am..” 

She was still panicking a bit as the blonde-haired kid didn’t make a good impression on her at all. However, the rain was slowly coming to an end as she just desperately wanted to get to the school.

“Oh, I see. Listen, sorry about scaring you like that... It wasn’t my intention.”

“N-No, i-it’s fine! U-Um... I should get going before I’m late... S-sorry..”

She bowed before them as she went to hastily leave to the school, prompting both of the kids to leave hastily as well.

However, as they were meant to arrive at the school, Sumire felt nauseous when her reality started to warp. After coming to her senses, she instead saw a castle in front of her instead of a school.

“W-What!?”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. I am back.. somewhat, with a new fic idea that I actually felt good about writing. Now you may notice that my fic is oddly similar to my other one.. to be honest, that was kind of my intention as I felt like I could do it better this way for the time being. So where does that put my other fic? What will happen to it? I am planning to re-write it from the start as I no longer liked the direction I took it in, as well as the writing. If I come back to it, I'll try to avoid the old mistakes I ended up doing.
> 
> For now.. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! I'll try to write more later when I'm not so occupied with university stuff. Also, huge thanks to Reali from the Church of Kasumi server for checking this out in detail to give feedback, as well as Doq!


	2. Wavering Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sumire and the other two boys from Shujin arrive at what seems to be a castle. Can they get out alive or will they end up meeting their doom?

Sumire was still in shock as she continued to stare at the castle in front of her. She wasn’t the only one, however.

“..Huh? We didn’t come the wrong way, though..” The blonde stared in awe at the castle that was supposed to be their school. 

“Are you sure we didn’t take a wrong turn somewhere?” The frizzy haired boy responded.

“Yeah, this should be right..”

Sumire shook her head as she turned to them to snap herself out of her shock.

“Um.. what should we do..?”

“...Let’s check it out; the school has to be here somewhere.” The blonde began to make his way to the building. 

Sumire wanted to protest against this because nothing around the scenery filled her with confidence but noticing that the two of them already went ahead, she decided to hastily follow them because she didn’t want to be left alone.

Things ended up being more confusing as they stepped into the castle. The trio observed their surroundings, glimpsing at what appeared to be items and lights from ancient times as well as a massive painting up the stairs of a man that looked familiar. They were confused as to if this really was their school.

“Th-That’s weird... Where’s the school?” The blonde looked around the place.

“I think we did take a wrong turn somewhere.” The boy with glasses responded after he quickly looked around the place, noting how vast it is.

“Um... I think so too..” Sumire said, trying to make sense of where they arrived. There definitely wasn’t anything that would relate to a school no matter how much she looked.

“N-No! This has to be it! I-I mean, it should be…”

He took out his phone to figure out where they had arrived, but he ended up getting more confused as he stared at his phone.

“Out of service? Where’d we end up?” He went to put his phone away as he looked at the frizzy haired boy and then to Sumire.

“The sign was for the school, right?”

“Yeah, it was.” The other boy said, adjusting his glasses.

“I-I believe so, yes..” Sumire fidgeted.

“Right!? You two saw it too!”

The trio got even more confused as they were thinking of their next move until they suddenly heard something moving as they turned to the... Man, that was coming. He had some sort of armour on him with a shield, sword, and what appeared to be a mask on his face. Sumire felt herself at unease as the figure arrived towards them.

“Geez, you freaked me out... Who’re you? You a student?”

“..He doesn’t look like a student.” 

Sumire felt herself tense up the more she stared at the figure. And he was still silent as well. She took a few steps back instinctively.

“C’mon, don’t just stand there, say something.”

The figure remained silent as another one that looked like it arrived, and menacingly approached the group. Sumire felt unable to move after understanding that those figures did not have good intentions. She couldn’t hear the other two speaking anymore and shortly after, started running out. Unfortunately, however, it was a little too late as she got hit in the face with one of those figure’s shields at the door, immediately passing out.

“You couldn’t even get out of here… You failed just like how you failed your sister!”

The one speaking was none other than that figure once again as it looked at Sumire with a creepy grin on its face.

“You’ll die here, for killing your own sister!”

The images of _that_ day kept appearing in Sumire’s mind as she held her head because of the pain. “S-Stop…”

And then her sister appeared as she jumped in front of Sumire to save her...

“Sumire, listen to me! SUMIRE!-”

Sumire opened her eyes as she gasped and sat up, immediately attracting the other two’s attention within the cell they were locked up. The cell itself wasn’t too big; some chains were on the wall with a bucket nearby. She shuddered at how unrealistic this cell felt. 

“H-Hey, you alright?” The blonde-haired boy spoke up, with a worried expression.

“Yeah.. you took quite a hit to your head.” 

She wasn’t alright. How should any of this make her feel okay? She held her head at the spot she got hit.

“I-I’m alright... Um... does it look bad?”

“Nah, you look fine.” 

“I’m glad you’re alright, but..” The Blonde looked around in the cell. “Looks like this ain’t no dream... “Ugh! What’s going on!?” He went running up to the cell door as he desperately tried to open it. “Hey! Let us out of here! I know there’s someone out there!”

Shortly after, however, they heard a scream of what seemed to be someone pleading for help. Sumire froze once again as she couldn’t feel herself move... Why was this happening to her? She couldn’t hear the others once again. Time around her seemed to slow down as she could feel her heartbeat. Not too long later, the same guards that surrounded them earlier arrived at the door, with someone who appeared to be underdressed and glowing yellow eyes coming as well.

After what seemed to be a conversation happening between that weird man and the blonde, the cell door opened up as three guards walked in, snapping Sumire back to reality as she moved to the edge of the wall, with a guard standing right in front of her, pointing his sword at her.

“..Goddammit!” The blonde spoke up before he rammed the guard to the ground. “I ain’t down for this shit! C’mon, we’re outta here!”

The other guard pointing its sword at Sumire turned around as it looked at the blonde-haired boy before hitting him on the stomach with the sword’s cross-guard, knocking the air out of him. Sumire let out a small scream as the blonde got hit.

“Oh? And who is this?” The weird man spoke up, looking at Sumire as he let out some saliva. “My, my... And aren’t you beautiful? I can’t wait to get my hands on you as soon as I beat up this peasant!”

On the other hand, the frizzy haired boy was trying to pull back the guard that Ryuji rammed down after he got back up.

“L-Leave her out of this, you disgusting asshole!” 

“Oh, don’t you worry... You won’t be around to see what I’ll do to her.”

‘W-What..!? N-No!’ Sumire wanted to scream, but she couldn’t.

The blonde-haired boy got picked up from the ground by the two guards near the door as they brought him up to the man named Kamoshida. The other guard, which the frizzy haired boy was trying to hold back pushed him back to the wall, pointing his sword in between the unruly haired boy and Sumire.

That weird person then proceeded to beat the crap out of the blonde, punching him in the face repeatedly. “Lowly scum!” Then the stomach, with the final hit knocking him down. “Useless pest!”

Once the man finished, he spat on him. Once again, one of the guards picked up the blonde and threw him near Sumire as he went to step on him. Sumire couldn’t utter words at the scenery she had seen, or be able to hold her tears.

“A peasant like you isn’t worth beating. On the other hand, though..” He eyed up Sumire once again as she looked up to him slowly.

‘I wish this was all just a bad dream... ’ Sumire thought to herself. ‘But this is real… K-Kasumi…’ 

“I like it even better when they give up and cry! Come on, Honours Student, give me those” He said, slowly approaching Sumire with his hand out.

“N-NO!” Sumire put her arms out to protect herself. ‘I-I don’t want to die! Not like this!’ She started tearing up more. Just as the man was getting to her...

“That’s enough!”

The one who said that was none other than the frizzy haired boy himself as everyone in the room turned to him.

“What was that…?”

The two guards immediately went to hold him against the wall with their weapons at his throat. The weird man gestured to the guard, ordering him to execute the frizzy hair as the third one raised its sword. Just before he managed to kill him; however, a strong force pushed the third guard back as everyone in the room looked confused. Shortly after, however, he started wincing in pain uncontrollably.

“Hold him down!” 

The two guards went to hold him towards the wall with their free hand. Shortly after, a mask appeared on the boy face out of nowhere as he went to pull it off with force. Once it managed to come off and rip off his skin with it, he flashed a creepy grin on the yellow-eyed man, before the mask he held hit the ground and pushed the other two guards holding him back as blue flames started engulfing him from below.

As the flames died down, a figure seemingly came out of him with a red suit and black wings. The moment it appeared, it released its wings with great force, ramming the other two shadows to the nearby walls.

‘W-What is that!? A demon!?’

“I am the pillager of twilight--” Arsêne”!”

“W-What…?” Sumire was trying to process the fact that this... He was talking.

“I am the rebel’s soul that resides within you. If you so desire, I shall consider granting you the power to break through this crisis.”

“Give me your power already.” The frizzy haired boy said, adjusting his coat.

“Hmph, very well.” 

“Who the hell are you..? Guards!” The two guards on the ground near the weird man immediately got up. “Start by killing that one!”

The two guards seemed to freeze for a moment as some sort of dark energy took over them, transforming them into what appeared to be a small pumpkin wearing a witch hat, holding a lantern in its hands. It didn’t take long for the frizzy haired boy to take action as suddenly a long dagger formed in his hand. He ran up to the one on the left as he went to slash through the clothing of it three times, it winced in pain as it stumbled back. The one on the right quickly hit him on the head with its lantern in retaliation as the frizzy haired boy limbed around a bit before the one on the left recovered and hit him as well. 

‘Y-You can do it! You have to win! Please!’ 

  
  


That wasn’t going to stop him however as he flashed a creepy grin towards the one on the left and ran up to it once again, cutting through its lantern with great force as it put the being on fire quickly, before it vanished in a puff of smoke.

The last one swung at the boy once again, but this time, he was able to hold his ground as he took the hit. He slashed through the being’s side just as it was backing up, causing it to wince in pain as he had stopped for a moment.

“This power of mine is yours! Kill them however you want. Run wild to your heart’s content!”

“Eiha!” The frizzy haired boy yelled out as the being behind him brought its wings together with some sort of dark energy leaving through them and towards the pumpkin-headed being. It evaporated to a speck of dust after the dark energy surrounded it. 

‘H-He seems really powerful... M-Maybe he’ll save us..’ 

Seeing as how there weren’t any threats left, the demon behind the boy turned into a line of energy as it went for his face, reforming into a mask with the dagger disappearing as well.

“W-What was that just now..?” The blonde boy spoke up.

“I-I have no idea..” 

It took the masked boy a few moments to realise that his attire has changed as he took a moment to look at his new clothing.

“You little…!” The weird man approached him, but he was suddenly tackled to the ground by the other boy.

“How do you like that, you son of a bitch!?”

“The key!”

“Y-You mean this..?” He picked up the key from the ground, but Sumire felt unable to move once again. Everything was happening so fast around her.

“We don’t have time to wait, come on!” 

“H-Huh- EEP!”

The masked boy pulled her along by holding her hand as they rushed outside. Once they did so, the blonde immediately closed the cell door and locked it.

“Damn you…!” The weird man tried to force open the door, to no avail.

The blonde ignored him, however, as he turned to the boy with the weird attire.

“Hey! What was that just now!? And… your clothes-” Suddenly, blue flames engulfed the boy once again, turning his attire to his school one. “W-Woah, it went back to normal!?”

“Umm... C-Can we please just get out of he-”

Sumire got cut short as Kamoshida tried to force open the door once again as she slightly screamed.

“You bastards!”

“S-She’s right... Let’s scram! You lead the way!” 

Sumire and the other boy ran off, and the blonde joined them after throwing the keys to the water below.

“Goddamn thieves... After them, don’t let them escape!”

They paid him no attention as they shortly after encountered another locked door. They tried to force open it to no avail.

“Goddammit... What do we do!?”

“U-Um.. t-there’s a path to the right!” Sumire pointed out, noticing an open door. “We have to j-jump it!”

Both of them nodded as they made the jump. The blonde almost fell to the water as he stumbled a bit, but the frizzy hair pulled him back as they continued running up the path. Shortly after, they encountered another locked up door with no bridge of sorts to help them get across. But there were cages in the water they could use to get across, at the risk of falling to the water stream that would’ve trapped them on the massive cage down the stream.

“C-Can we really get across this?” He paused for a moment, looking around. “..On the other hand, there’s nowhere else we can try... Alright, let’s get to hopping.”

All 3 of them managed to jump across and immediately went running down. All of this running was starting to tire Sumire out as she tried to catch her breath. They arrived at an open cell as they went in. It looked like this cell was undermaintained compared to the one they were in a few moments ago. They noticed a hole on the wall that led to a different side.

“Let’s get to crawling. Come on.” The boy with the glasses went in first.

“U-Um.. you first..” Sumire said to the Blonde, to which he nodded and went to crawl in as Sumire followed behind.

The hole led to another cell with an open door similar to the one they were in earlier. The trio rushed out immediately. Upon seeing a drawbridge, the trio used it to get across and continue running down, but they suddenly stopped because there was a noise of something getting closer.

“Hey, we gotta hide!” The blonde-haired boy spoke up once again as the three of them crouched behind a set of barrels and boxes.

“Over there... They’re looking for us, right?”

“Of course they are. Come on, let’s move.” The frizzy haired boy said as he saw a spiral staircase nearby. He went running it up with the others running after him as well.

“H-How much…?” Sumire said, trying to catch her breath once again. 

“I’m not sure. Just stay close.” Frizzy hair responded, shortly after arriving at a set of doors. He went to open them up. 

Unfortunately, after they opened the doors, the scenery around them didn’t fill them with confidence. Rather, the place appeared to be much bigger than it initially looked.

“Dude.. you gotta be joking... This ain’t the exit!? What the hell is this place!?”

“I-I don’t know anymore... I-I just want to get out of here!” Sumire responded as she felt like time was starting to slow around her once again.

“Hey, hey! Stay with me, come on!” The boy with the glasses put his hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of it as she nodded. They continued to run down the path before they encountered people locked up in the cages above the water. They were wearing some sort of a weird mask that seemed like something they have never seen before.

“H-Hey... Look..” The blonde-haired boy pointed towards the cages. Unfortunately, this reminded Sumire of when she heard some screaming. The memory sent shivers down her spine as she figured it was probably those people that screamed.

“W-We can’t help them... C-can we..?” Sumire said out, weakly. Both of them turned to her and shook their heads to which Sumire just looked down.

“I’m sorry, but we have to worry about ourselves right now. There’s nothing we can do.” Frizzy hair spoke up once again, adjusting his glasses to cover his eyes.

She looked up at him and nodded, accepting the harsh reality around her as they continued to run down. They encountered a bridge with a statue of that weird man nearby.

“Shit! The bridge’s raised up! Ain’t there some way to lower it!?” 

“I don’t see a way at the moment.” 

“M-Me neither... W-We should keep going... Maybe there’s another way out somewhere..”

They went ahead to run down the path once again, shortly after arriving at a dead end with no other way out.

“Another dead end..? Dammit! How the hell’re we supposed to get out of here!?"

‘Maybe we are going to die here, after all... Mom... Dad..’ She was close to tearing up until a voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

“...Hey. You there.” 

The three of them looked around, unable to locate where the voice was coming from.

“Blondie! Frizzy hair! Redhead! Look over here!”

They looked down on the cell next to them, seeing a weird creature with huge eyes that resembled a cat.

“Gah! What is this thing!?” The blondie yelled out.

“T-That must be a c-creature!” Sumire yelled out as she took a few steps back.

“Hey! I am not a creature!” He shook his head. “Forget about that! You’re not soldiers of this castle, right!? Get me out of here! Look, the key’s right there!”

“We’re trying to get out of here! I mean, you obviously look like an enemy too!”

“I’m locked up here, so how can I be your enemy!? Help me out!”

“U-Um.. h-he does have a point..” 

“...Wait, are you a cat?” The frizzy hair asked.

“I am NOT a cat! Say that again, and I’ll make you regret it!”

There was a noise of something approaching closer as Sumire panicked a bit. The vulgar boy pulled out his phone, noticing there isn’t any service just like before.

“Shit! There’s still no service. Ain’t there any way to contact someone outside!?” He went to put away his phone. “How the hell do we get out!?”

“You want to know where the exit is? Let me out, and I’ll take you there. You don’t want to get caught and executed, right?”

“..You better not be lying.” The frizzy hair said, adjusting his glasses as the reflection covered his eyes.

“I’m not lying! It’s the truth!”

“..I-I think he is telling the truth..” Sumire pointed out, smiling a tiny bit as she felt herself be able to trust this strange creature.

“Nice to see the lady has some brains!” The creature jumped, looking at her. Shortly after, however, the noise they heard earlier was heard again, except it sounded much closer this time.

“..Are you seriously not messing with us?” The blondie said, staring at the cat-like creature.

“If you don’t hurry, they’ll catch you.” 

“T-there’s no time!” Sumire said, starting to panic a bit more. They looked at each other as the other two nodded and went to let him out of his cell with the nearby keys.

“Ahh… Freedom tastes so great…” 

“Now, where’s the exit, you monster cat!?” The vulgar boy spoke up, angrily staring at the cat.

“Don’t call me a cat! I am Morgana!”

“Um... Morgana-san... Where is the exit?” Sumire asked with tension in her voice.

“At least you got some manners, my lady.” Morgana looked at Sumire smiling, prompting her to blush a bit at the remark.

“Shuddup and hurry it up! You wanna be locked up again?” The blonde spoke up, angrily staring at the cat.

“A-All right! Sheesh… Follow me, and stay quiet!”

Morgana took the lead this time as it walked back to the statue the trio stopped earlier to check out. Just as Morgana was about to reach up to the figure of that pervert,

“What’re you doing?” 

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to lower the bridge.” He then glanced in between Sumire and the other boy. “It seems like you two pick up things faster than our Blondie over here. Try checking around the mouth of the statue, okay?”

“Um.. i-is it some sort of switch?” Sumire said out loud, but just as she finished, the other boy pulled the statue’s mouth down, making the statue glow with yellow eyes as the bridge came down.

“How were we supposed to know to do that!?”

“Hmph.. amateur. Come on, let’s keep going!”

Morgana retook the lead as all 4 of them went running the path down the bridge. Unfortunately, however, they encountered another guard that came out of the door in front of them as Sumire abruptly stopped herself to keep her distance from it, with the other boy's attire changing once more as the same dagger appeared in his hand.

“A-Aah! Shit… Shit, it’s them!” Blondie said, as he also fell to the ground backing away from the guard.

Sumire panicked a bit as the enemy found them out. Morgana noticed this and used Ryuji’s head to jump in front of them, preparing for the battle. “Don’t worry, my lady, I’ll protect you! Stay back, you amateur!” He then paused to look at the boy next to him. “Hey, you! You could fight, right? Let’s go!” He jumped off from the ground to adjust himself. “Come... Zorro!”

A blue pillar of flames engulfed Morgana as it blinded everyone looking at him. Shortly after, another of those figures similar to the masked boy's appeared behind Morgana.

“M-Morgana-san... Y-you too!?” Sumire said out, in shock. Having another ally that can fight did fill her with confidence.

Morgana made his scimitar appear out of seemingly nothing as the frizzy-haired boy also made his dagger appear. On the other hand, the guard got engulfed with dark energy as two beings appeared from it. One of them was that same pumpkin-headed being the masked boy fought before, and the other seemed to represent some sort of a devil creature as it grinned at the fighters.

“Damn Shadows… they’ve taken up intercept positions! Looks like it’s not about capturing us anymore… They’re out for blood!” He then paused, pointing his scimitar at the Shadows.

“I’ll back you up, so fight like your life depends on it! Let’s go!”

“Arsêne, Eiha!” The frizzy-haired boy ripped off his mask as the figure appeared behind him once again. It clapped its wings, sending out a wave of dark energy towards the devil looking Shadow. Although the Shadow did get hurt after being engulfed with the dark power, it was still alive.

“Hmph, I knew you were an amateur. This is how you fight! Zorro!” 

As Morgana called out the name, the thing appeared behind him once more as it’s sword collected the air around it, before sending it like a ball of energy towards the pumpkin-headed one as it went down on the ground. 

‘Maybe Morgana-san is stronger than the other one ?’

“Strike at an enemy’s weakness to knock them down! Use that opening to strike again!”

Morgana called out as he went running up to the devil creature, jumping at the Shadow as it tried to fly out of the way, but it was little too slow as Morgana sliced the shadow in half, turning it into a cloud of dust. The other pumpkin-headed Shadow got off from the ground as it swung its lantern towards Morgana, but he jumped out of the way before it connected. Using this as a chance, the masked boy ran up to the Shadow to cut through part of its head as it dropped the hat it was holding, proceeding to stab the shadow before it could fly away from him, evaporating into a speck of dust. 

‘That was violent! But I’m glad they are out of our way now..’ 

Once the threat was over, both of their weapons disappeared as Morgana went to look up at the masked boy .

“Not bad. Your Persona is pretty powerful.”

“Persona? Y’mean that thing that comes outta you guys all dramatic like?” The blonde asked as he stared at Morgana and frizzy hair.

“Yes. You saw how Frizzy Hair here ripped off his mask when he summoned it, right?”

“Y-Yeah... It turns into his... Um... Persona after he does that...” Sumire pointed out.

“Right! Everybody wears a mask deep within their heart. By removing that…”

Just as he said that the other boy's clothes turned back to normal after blue flames engulfed him once again.

“Huh? He turned back to normal…” The vulgar said.

“It happened earlier too...” Sumire noted.

“Hmm… It looks like you don’t have full control over your power yet. The transformation shouldn’t normally dissolve like that.”

“What do you mean, exactly? I feel pretty strong-”

“Rrgh, that’s enough! This crap doesn’t make any sense!”

‘I wanted to listen to the rest of it, though..’ 

“Can’t you just sit still and listen for once, Blondie!?” Morgana yelled at him as he jumped twice in anger.

“Don’t call me Blondie! My name’s Ryuji…”

‘..Why is he so angry? Calm down..’ 

“...Actually, there’s no time for me to lecture you! You wanna escape this place in one piece, right? Let’s go! Oh, but before that - take these. Use them carefully, okay?”

Morgana pulled out three tiny objects from his scarf that got bigger as he handed them to the frizzly haired boy.

‘..H-How did he make that happen!?’ Sumire’s eyes were widened at what he saw, just like the others as well. ‘..B-But we don’t have time to question it…’

The grizzly haired boy took them as he put the items in his school bag. “Thanks for that.”

Morgana nodded. “Come on, we should hurry. It’s not much farther to the exit.” He turned towards the stairs at the pathway up ahead. “Just make sure you’re good on stamina, okay? There’s still a chance we’ll end up having to fight in here.”

He nodded as this time, the other boy took the lead, and everyone else followed him up the stairs. They saw a similar bridge with the same statue once again, as Sumire patiently waited for the frizzy haired boy to activate the switch when he suddenly got interrupted because of Ryuji.

“Hold on a sec!” Ryuji said, looking at a cell with a boy in it on the ground.

‘W-What..!? J-Just how bad is that guy!?’ 

“I feel like I’ve seen what this dude’s wearing before..”

“Um... I think that’s our gym uniforms?” Sumire pointed out as she did remember getting clothes with that design.

“Y-You’re right! He seems familiar, but.. Argh, I can’t remember him! I’m too flustered!” 

“Come on, let’s go!” Morgana yelled out, getting the attention of others as he jumped.

“Hold on, dammit!” 

“What is it? We need to go, fast!” 

“But… Who are those guys?” Ryuji said, in a tired manner as he seemed defeated.

“Do you really think you have time to worry about other people right now!? Besides, they’re-”

Morgana got interrupted by the bridge being lowered by a guard on the other side of the bridge. It ran towards the group. Sumire took a few steps back as the guard approached.

‘I should give them space to fight... I don’t want to get in their way too..’ Sumire said to herself, looking down with sadness.

“You should’ve listened to me…!” Morgana frustratedly said as he made his scimitar appear once again.

“Let’s fight and get this over with.” The other boy said as he turned into his weird attire once again.

“I’m glad you stick to your guns.” Morgana remarked. Shortly after, the guard turned into two shadows, with wings on their backs.

‘They look like some sort of fairy..’ 

The masked boy made his dagger appear as he rushed to one of those fairies on the left. He sliced it two times before quickly running around the fairy to slash at its wings. However, this wasn’t enough to kill it as the shadow could still move but at a much slower pace. Morgana took this as an opportunity to slash the shadow in half using his scimitar. 

‘They work really well together..’ 

The other one struck at Morgana full speed by ramming into him with its legs, causing him to fly back a bit as Morgana stumbled on the ground. It went flying around the grizzly haired boy to make itself harder to hit.

“Arsêne!” The masked boy ripped off his mask once more as the Persona rushed towards the fairy full speed with its hands out. The fairy tried to outrun Arsêne, but it proved to be faster as it got caught by the Persona and got rammed into the ground at full speed. Although the fairy was still alive, it didn’t matter as the Persona closed its wings down on the fairy, with dark energy completely obliterating it.

‘T-That’s a really terrifying power…’ Sumire was shocked at the events that happened before her. ‘I-I’m glad those Shadows aren’t that strong, though..’ 

The masked boy returned to his school attire once the battle was over.

“All right! Let’s get away before more show up!” Morgana said, taking a step forward before he stopped again because of Ryuji.

“Hold on, we can’t just leave those guys here!” 

“You really don’t get it, do you? Hrgh… There’s no time to explain. Look, I’m going. If you don’t want to follow, be my guest!” Morgana said, running towards the other side.

“Dammit..!” Ryuji said, kicking the ground.

“R-Ryuji-san... We have to go. There’s not much we can do..” Sumire said, looking down as she fidgeted.

“She’s right. Come on, let’s get going.” Frizzly haired boy took off after Morgana as Sumire followed right behind him as well.

“Dammit... Fine, I’m coming!” Ryuji yelled out as he followed behind the group as well. They ended up arriving at a door after a while of running, with stairs leading up on the other side of the door.

“The entrance hall is right above here! The exist’s close… Keep it up!”

Morgana led them towards the hall as the group arrived at the spot where they first came in. 

‘T-Thank god! W-we’re going to make it!’ They ran to the hallway on the other side.

Morgana stopped in front of a door as he looked at the others, jumping to get their attention.

“We’re here!” Morgana went to push open the door, leading the trio into a small room filled with books on shelves, with two flags of that perverted man’s picture on the wall hanging. 

“Where are we supposed to get out from here!? There aren’t even any windows!” 

“Ugh.. amateur… This is the most basic of basics."

“U-Um…” Sumire looked around to figure a way out, but she didn’t have to as the other boy pointed it out for them.

“A ventilation shaft, right?” He said, adjusting his glasses.

“That’s right! As I thought, you’re a natural at this. It leads all the way outside.” 

“I see... Then we just gotta get that metallic mesh off!” Ryuji ran up to the bookshelves as he climbed them up. “And a one, and a-” Just as he went to pull off the metallic mesh, it came off as he fell backwards to the ground from the shelves with it.

“Oww…” He got up from the ground. “Crap! The enemy didn’t hear us, did they?” He paused for a moment, then turned towards the group. “Seriously, we’re finally getting out of here!”

“Yeah… we’re finally getting out.” The other boy said, sighing in relief.

  
  
“Mhm! I-I still can’t believe we’re actually getting out!” Sumire said, with a warm smile. ‘This is the happiest I have ever felt in a while..’ 

“My lady, you should wait on celebrating until you actually get out. Now, please get going.”

“But.. what about you?” Ryuji asked.

“There’s something that I still have to do. We’re going our separate ways.” Morgana said.

“Thank you for helping us.” The other boy said.

“Y-Yeah, thank you Morgana-san!” She bowed before him.

“Heh. You two got manners. Especially you, my lady.” He nodded at the two of them before he waved. “Be careful on your way.”

The two of them ran ahead to climb up the shelves with Ryuji quickly leaving through the ventilation shaft. The other boy stayed behind to help Sumire up by taking her hand. Once the two of them passed the ventilation shaft, they ran out of the castle limits to the street they came towards the ‘school’ with all their might.

The trio stopped once they thought they ran far ahead, panting to catch their breath. Everything seemed normal so far, with ordinary people being around as opposed to guards or Shadows.

“Did we make it?” Ryuji asked, still gasping for air.

“I-I think so.. I-I mean, everything looks normal..” She stopped to catch her breath.

The other boy pulled out his phone as it was buzzing to see what was up. It played out a weird message upon turning on his phone.

“You have returned to the real world. Welcome back.”

“...Huh? Returned?” Ryuji looked confused.

“A-And... To the real world? W-What does that even mean…?” 

“I’m not sure…” The other boy said, putting away his phone.

“I don’t know what to think anymore..” Ryuji sighed frustratedly.

“Umm.. excuse me, but I think we should get going now before we get into trouble..” Sumire said, noticing some police officers nearby. Both of them nodded as they quickly made their way to the school using the same path just like before. Thankfully, everything seemed normal after the trio arrived at the same spot once again as there wasn’t a sign of a castle around.

“Is this for real…?” Ryuji paused, looking at the school. “I-I’m sure we came the way… What’s going on here…?”

“That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you.” A teacher came in front of them up the stairs. “Care explaining where you were all this time?”

“Uhh.. a ca-” 

“We encountered some people that picked a fight with us. I was protecting the girl here with my friend from those people as they tried to attack her.” 

Sumire looked at him confused for a few moments, but she nodded. It was better to lie than try explaining what really happened to the teacher.

“By the way, Ms. Honours student... You should make your way to the class. Although it is undeniable you’re extremely late and also spent your time with troublemakers, I’ll look over it this time.”

“Y-Yes, sir…” She looked down as she walked up the stairs, ashamed of herself. However, on the way to the entrance, she saw a teacher that seemed oddly familiar to her... Until she realised it was the same person from that castle. She immediately took a few steps away from him in fear, to which the teacher got confused.

“What’s wrong, Honours student? Did those two downstairs do something to you?”

“U-Um.. n-no, sir... E-excuse me, but I have to get going..”

“Well, okay. But if those two bother you, you can come to me for help.”

She didn’t say anything as she entered the school, making her way to her classroom. Although it was almost lunchtime... Today felt like it was dragging on and on as she arrived at her class, knocking on the door a few times before entering.

“Oh? You must be Yoshizawa-san. Where were you?” The teacher asked, eyeing her up.

“U-Um... I-I’m sorry... Some people attacked me on my way here, t-that’s why I took so long.. I-I won’t do it again!” She bowed down before the teacher.

“..Very well, it sounds a bit fishy, but I’ll believe it. Take your seat, Yoshizawa-san.”

Sumire looked down on the ground as she made her way to her seat. ‘I-I don’t think she actually believed me... It’s probably because of my Honours status..’ She thought to herself, as she made her way to her seat.

“Hey.. isn’t that the Honours student?” 

“Yeah.. and she’s super late too on the first day!”

“I heard she was the one that caused her sister to die..”

“Yeah, she’s probably cursed or something..”

  
  


‘N-No, don’t cry... Don’t cry…!’ Sumire told herself, barely holding her tears as she desperately wanted this day to be over.

Unfortunately, the day proved to be much more challenging than she thought. She didn’t feel like she could eat and on top of that... People were avoiding her. One of them even threw a pencil at her while she was looking outside the class during lunch. 

‘P-People want me gone this much... M-maybe I should just..’ She hastily left the classroom and made her way to the roof as she tried her best to hide her tears. She attracted a lot of attention with the pace she was going until she finally arrived on the rooftop floor.

  
  


She hastily opened the door to the roof as she finally let out all that emotion she had been building up in herself out.

“I-I don’t want to live anymore!” She yelled out as she continued crying. A few moments later, however, the door to the roof opened as the frizzly haired boy arrived once again.

“...Hey, you alright..?” He said, looking at her in pain.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the wait! I was busy with university stuff (I still have an exam tomorrow actually), but I should have free time from Friday onwards as I will be on a break.
> 
> In any case, thank you for reading the chapter and I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Also, huge, HUGE thanks to chriscruise03 from Church of Kasumi for beta reading for me!


	3. Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sumire has a new friend, but will it be enough for her troubles for the time being?

“H-Huh..?” Sumire turned around to look at the frizzy-haired boy, barely able to hold her tears back from someone she just met. “Oh... hi…” 

He grabbed two nearby chairs and brought them to her, sitting down on one of them. “Please, take a seat, Yoshizawa-san.”

“W-Why…?” She went to remove her glasses to wipe her tears. “W-Why do you want to t-talk to me…?”

“Well.. it seemed like you needed a friend. And you can at least trust me a bit, right? Especially after what happened earlier… ” He brought his hands together as he eagerly awaited her answer.

“Friend…” Sumire said out in a low voice. To be honest, she wasn’t entirely sure who she could trust at this point... But he  _ did _ save her life back then. It was only fair she’d listen to him at least. “..Okay…”

‘What if he betrays me, though? What if he’s just like the others?’ Those thoughts filled her head as she went to sit down, not sure of what to say.

“I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I?” He stretched his head a bit. “I’m Akira Kurusu. Nice to meet you, Yoshizawa-san.”

“Um… where did you hear my name?” She looked at him, confusion obvious in her face.

“It was back then at the school gate when that… asshole talked to you.” 

“Oh... Um, my full name is Sumire Yoshizawa. It’s nice to meet you, Kurusu-san..” She noticed that he was a second-year because of the pin on his uniform. “O-Oh, you’re a second-year… That makes you my Senpai…”

“It seems so.” He chuckled a bit. “You’re an Honors student, right?”

“I-I am… although I don’t like getting special treatment, because…” 

She stopped as she almost teared up again because of the ‘attention’ she received from others at school. Worst of all, her Honors status was one of the reasons people treated her harshly.

“Hey, hey… it’s okay. I’m here to listen. I-If you want to talk to me, that is...” He adjusted his glasses as he looked around the place while waiting for her to answer.

‘But what if he thinks I’m cursed too..? What if he hates me too…?“ She shook her head to keep those thoughts out of her head. “I..” She paused for a moment, breathing in some air as she felt pain in her throat. “People were harsh on me… a-and avoiding me… thinking I’m cursed…” She started tearing up once again, trying her best to hide it from him by looking away.

“If it makes you feel better... you and I aren’t too different from what I gathered.” He sighed out loud with a hint of irritation in his eyes.

“..H-Huh?” She turned back to him again, tears falling from her eyes to her cheeks. “W-What do you mean, Senpai…?” 

“I feel like we’re both being treated harshly by people despite it being our first day at school if that makes sense…” He chuckled a bit. “Although, I don’t mind if you think of me as someone not worthy to talk to if you heard of those rumours too-”

“N-No! I-I mean, um… I-I wouldn’t think of you like that, Senpai!” Sumire blurted out suddenly, causing Akira to look surprised. “After what you’ve done for me.. I-I wouldn’t believe in those rumours! I-I’m sure t-they’re wrong!” Once again, Once again, Sumire yelled out, only realising she had been yelling after a few moments, covering her mouth in shock. “S-Sorry, Senpai…”

“Nah, it’s okay.” He smiled at her, adjusting his glasses. “I’m glad you can trust me this much, even though we barely know each other… But I’m here to talk about you.” He looked down for a moment. “I’m sure those rumours about you are dumbfounded.”

“W-Well…” She looked down, fidgeting with her fingers once again. “S-Senpai… The truth is…” She paused for a moment. ‘I-I don’t want to live like this…!’ She began to tear up again, but she quickly wiped them away. “P-People think I’m cursed a-and they even threw a pencil at my head because they think I’m cursed!” She shouted as the tears finally took over, no longer able to hold them back.

“Sumire,” Akira called out to her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

“H-Huh…?” Sumire said out weakly, stopping her sobs for a moment.

“I’m here for you. If you need to cry your heart out, then do so. You’ll feel better afterwards.” He removed his hand off of her shoulder. “Do you want me to buy you a drink?”

“U-Um.. a-anything’s fine… but… can I get some water, Senpai…?” 

“Sure… do you mind staying here for me? I’ll be back quickly.” He said as he got up.

She nodded as she looked down, thinking about the advice he gave her. She wanted to keep crying. After Akira nodded back and left the rooftop, she cried her heart out, allowing herself to sniffle uncontrollably. By the time Akira came back, a vast majority of her tears were gone.

“Hey… sorry I took so long.” He scratched his head with a meek smile.

“I-It’s okay, Senpai… thank you for taking your time…” She wiped her eyes again as Akira handed her the bottle of water, drinking about half of it until she felt herself at ease. “T-Thank you…”

“It’s my pleasure. Are you feeling better?” 

“A bit, yes…” She sighed a bit. “Um... if it’s alright, could we meet up tomorrow again, Senpai…?”

He nodded, to which Sumire smiled a tiny bit. “Um... if it’s okay, can I ask for your chat ID, Senpai…?”

“Sure thing!” They held out each other’s phones until they heard a confirmation noise, prompting both of them to put away their phone. “You can message me any time whenever you’re feeling down. I’m always willing to listen.”

“T-Thank you, Senpai… fo f-for today...” She smiled a bit more at him. “Um… I think we both should get going now, though... It’s kind of late…” 

“Yeah… then I’ll see you tomorrow, Yoshizawa-san?”

“Um… you can just call me Sumire, Senpai…” She breathed in as she felt a significant part of her troubles vanished.

“Okay, Sumire… do you want me to walk with you to the station?”

“H-Huh? Um… you don’t have to, Senpai…” She slightly blushed. “B-But, if that’s okay…”

“Of course.” He got up from his seat and went towards the rooftop door to open it as Sumire followed him behind, making their way towards the school entrance.

“Hey, is that the cursed girl with the transfer student?”

“It’s the first day of school, and they’re already dating? Wow…”

“They’re perfect for each other, considering what they did!”

Although Akira paid no attention to those rumours, they were slightly bothering Sumire. ‘We’re not dating though… now rumours are going to be spreading about Senpai because of me…’ Sumire glanced at him with the corner of her eye out of guilt, with Akira seemingly not noticing it.

As they arrived at the first floor, Sumire noticed the mop-haired teacher she encountered at the school gates was also there, looking at a panel. Sumire started panicking slightly as the teacher finally saw the two of them together.

“I-It’s him…” she muttered out, accidentally grabbing Akira’s attention when he felt the sleeve of his blazer get tugged. 

“Oh, Ms. Honours student and the transfer student. What brings the two of you together?” He asked casually, staring between them.

“Um… H-He was j-just-”

“I’m helping her towards the station.” Akira quickly cut her off, much to her surprise. “She’s requested me to walk her to the station, so I’m helping her out. Is there a problem?” Akira adjusted his glasses as the reflection entirely covered his eyes, giving him a stern look.

“Hmph. There’s no problem.” He shook his head as he looked up at Sumire, eyeing her up. “Although I hope you realise who you’re hanging out with, Ms. Honours student. Considering that he-”

“I-I don’t care!” Sumire suddenly yelled out, attracting the attention of other people towards them. “J-Just leave me be, please!” Sumire closed her eyes as she yelled again, causing the mop-haired teacher and everyone else within the floor to look surprised.

“Alright, that’s up to you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if he does something to you.” He said, looking the other direction before turning back to Sumire again. “But you can always come to me if you need protection from- ”

“N-NO!” Sumire felt like she was ready to sob before Akira pulled her hand along to take her outside, causing her to let out a small “Eep!” as the mop-haired teacher angrily stared at the two of them. More rumours quickly spread as they were leaving the building.

“They have to be dating! Look at how protective that guy is!”

“Geez, what’s next? They attack Mr. Kamoshida? Look at how she was reacting to him!”

“Maybe she thinks she can defy him like that due to her Honours status?”

‘Why..!? Why do those care so much!? We’re not dating!’ Sumire thought to herself before noticing they were finally at the school gates.

“Hey, you alright, Sumire? With what that bastard said…”

She only slightly nodded in response as she looked down for a few moments. “Um… Senpai, I’m sorry… those rumours are spreading because of m-me and-”

“Don’t blame yourself.” Akira cut her short as he slightly raised his hand. “It doesn’t matter now. After all, we’re friends now, right?”

“Y-Yeah! We are… s-still…” She let out a heavy sigh. She felt herself getting more and more tired.

“Don’t worry. I couldn’t care less about those rumours. Do you still want me to walk you to the station?”

“Mhm… if that’s okay… A-And, Senpai…” She looked at him as a small smile grew. " Thank you again…” 

“Don’t mention it.” Akira smiled back at her, seeming relieved.

Both of them made their way towards the station, walking close together. Sumire felt herself on edge after everything that’s happened today. She didn’t care about what people would say to her anymore at this point. Her mind drowned out those voices for her. The streets were really crowded as they kept walking to their destination. She felt dizzy at the number of people walking on the road as she held her head.

‘Senpai… I don’t understand… why do you help me so much?’

She looked at him from the corner of her eye as the thought came to her mind. Akira noticed it as he turned to her, prompting her to look away immediately.

“Sumire? Are you alright?” Akira asked, adjusting his glasses.

“Y-Yes… I-I’m fine, Senpai...” She looked up at him as she subconsciously touched her hair to adjust it.

“We’re here.” Akira grinned at her. “You spaced out for a moment there. Does your head hurt?”

“Oh…” Sumire looked down, feeling a blush form from the embarrassment. “Um… it kind of did... But I think I’m alright… Thank you for accompanying me, Senpai.”

He nodded. “It’s no problem. I need to take care of something else. See you later.”

“See you, Senpai…”

She waved at him as she boarded the train. It seemed to be a bit less crowded than the morning, managing to find an empty seat relatively easily. She felt herself getting a bit sleepy, closing her eyes slowly until her phone buzzed, jolting her awake. It was a message from her mom.

_ When are you coming home, dear? _

She got anxious, remembering how long she took at school due to her breakdown.

_ I’m on my way home, sorry I took so long mom. _

_ It’s okay! We’ll wait for you. _

_ Okay… see you soon, mom. Love you… _

_ Love you too, sweetheart. _

She put away her phone as she felt her eyes getting heavier. She didn’t eat anything at lunch as she couldn’t leave her classroom, and now the hunger was really taking effect. Thankfully, she was nearing her intended destination as the train announcer spoke up, prompting her to get up from her seat and wait till the train stopped at the platform.

The walk to her home felt even more painful as she felt like she was losing her mind trying to get to her house.

‘I-I should’ve died… I should’ve…’

Sumire clutched her head as she kept on walking. Everything around her was seemingly slowing down the more she got closer to her home, breathing too quickly as she forced herself to move. Thankfully, she managed to arrive at her house soon before nausea she felt took over. Her house was bordering the Tama river in a very lush area. It was a two-story building that gave off the impression it was decorated well, with a visible balcony on the outside. It had a few windows on the ground and the top floor of the house.

‘W-Why is this happening to me…!?’

She shook her head as she went to open the door with her key, entering the house slowly. Shinichi and Akane were at the dinner table, happy to see her make it.

“Welcome home, dear. Come on, sit down.” Akane said, prompting Sumire to drop her school bag nearby. On the table, there was miso shiru as soup and chicken karaage followed by a salad in the middle of the dinner table with mixed vegetables ranging from tomato to carrots.

Sumire went to sit down near her father as she started eating, with her pace ramping up quickly since she neglected to eat during lunch, surprising both of her parents.

“Hey… Sumire dear, can we ask a question?”

“H-Huh?” Sumire finished eating the soup as she looked at her mom and dad. “W-What is it?”

“We got a call from school saying you were late… They told us you arrived around lunch? Do you want to explain why?”

“Um… uh... W-well..” She fidgeted with her fingers as she looked down at the table. “I-I’m sorry… I-I got attacked while walking to the school, but a boy saved me… I-It was a bit too long, that’s why I was so late…” She sighed, expecting her parents to get mad.

“Ooh! A boy saved you? Was he cute?”

“...H-Huh?!” Sumire slightly blushed at her mom’s words, not expecting that sort of reaction. “W-What do you mean, Mom-”

“He must’ve fought valiantly for you if you were  _ that _ late to school! Or perhaps you two…”

“Huh? Huh?!” Sumire’s eyes widened as Shinichi looked at Akane with a smile, already aware of what she would say next...

“....started dating after that!”

“...Wha- N-No!” Sumire quickly shook her head, prompting Akane to laugh as Shinichi sighed. 

“I’m sure she wouldn’t date someone like that on the first day of school, Akane.”

“But it’d also explain why she was so late for home today! Were you two hanging out, sweetie?” Akane asked, having a broad smile on her face as she got closer to her daughter.

“M-Mom!” She covered her face with her hands as she felt her blush deepen. “I-It’s true I d-did hang out with him-

“ So you two  _ are _ dating!” Akane laughed as Sumire let out a small, aggravated groan.

“Okay, okay… let’s give her some space to talk. I’m sure she can explain.” Shinichi told his wife, adjusting his glasses as he took a spoon from his soup.

“W-We’re not really dating..” The blush on her face began to vanish as she moved her hands on the table. “We just happened to get to know each other because of… some things... That’s all..” She sighed, remembering what happened today.

“Oh, alrighty sweetie. I’m sorry for teasing you like that. But it does sound like you made a friend at school!” She smiled naturally at Sumire as she brought the karaage for her to eat.

“M-Mhm… he’s a nice person, from what I could see…”

“You should get to know him more, Sumire.” Shinichi said, ruffling her hair. 

“I-I plan to, Dad.” She turned to Shinichi, smiling at him. “We agreed to talk again tomorrow.”

Shinichi smiled back at her as she ruffled her hair a bit more before going back to finishing his soup. Akane brought chicken karaage for Sumire once again as she ate through it quickly like with the soup, her parents shocked at her pace.

“Um... Mom, can I get some more chicken…?”

“Sure thing, sweetie. You must have been really hungry!”

Akane brought more karaage for Sumire after she prepared it for her. She ate through the whole thing again, this time at a slower pace. “Um... it’s really delicious, Mom… Thank you for the food…” Sumire said, nearly finishing up with the karaage.

Akane smiled at her as she went to ruffle Sumire’s hair as well. “Glad you like it, Sumire. You should probably get some rest. You seemed a bit tired when you came home.”

“O-Okay…” She yawned a bit as she stood up. She went to pick her school bag before slowly going upstairs.

“I’m so proud of our girl... She managed to make a friend!”

“Me too.” Shinichi let out a small laugh. “I hope she’ll be able to make more friends.” 

Sumire paused for a moment while she was going up. She was… happy that she could make her parents happy like this. It filled her heart with warmth as she continued going up the stairs, unable to hide her smile as she made her way to her room.

‘Maybe I don’t need to do something like that… Maybe things will turn out alright…’

She sat down on her bed with those thoughts after changing into her pyjamas before laying down on her bed. She decided to turn on her phone to message Akira.

_ Um… hi, Senpai. I wanted to thank you again for today… _

_ It sounded like my parents were happy that I could make a friend. _

She patiently waited for him to type as she stared at her phone for a while, happy to see the “...” icon pop up.

_ Really? It’s no problem at all, Sumire. _

_ I’ll be there for you whenever you need it. _

_ Thank you, Senpai! Um… see you tomorrow? Maybe at lunch? _

_ Sure.  _

_ I think I’m going to go to sleep. We kinda went through a lot today. See you tomorrow? _

She smiled a bit as she forgot about her troubles for a few moments, staring at the screen before she started typing.

_ Okay! _

_ Goodnight, Senpai! _

_ Goodnight, Sumire! _

‘Senpai seems to really care…’ Sumire thought to herself, putting away her phone with a smile. ‘..I wish Kasumi was still here, though…’ Sumire said, her smile diminishing as she fell asleep shortly after.

  
  


* * *

“Sumire, make sure to take your umbrella.” Shinichi said, after spotting Sumire walking down the stairs with her bag and school uniform.

“Oh.. right, I almost forgot... Thank you, Dad.” Sumire smiled at him as she went to grab an umbrella from one of the drawers near the door.

“Of course, Sumire. Good luck at school.” He said, smiling at her.

Sumire managed to find her umbrella as she noticed the 4th one… belonged to her sister. She winced a bit in pain as she held the umbrella that belonged to her dead sister, holding it close to her for a few seconds as some tears fell from her eyes.

‘I’m sorry, Kasumi… I’m sorry…. I’m a terrible sister…’

“Sumire? Is everything okay?” Shinichi asked, noticing that she still didn’t leave home.

“H-Huh? Uh... nothing, Dad…” She put back the umbrella in her hand and picked her own umbrella, after which she wiped her eyes. “Um… see you later…” She slightly smiled at him and waved as she left the house, to which Shinichi waved back, although he did seem a bit concerned as Sumire closed the door.

‘Why did it have to be rainy…?’ Sumire closed her eyes as she stood still. She opened her umbrella and slowly made her way towards the station as the visions of that rainy day kept flashing in front of her, causing her to hold her head as she pushed herself to the station.

  
  


It wasn’t any better at the station once she was waiting for the train to arrive, as a few students from Shujin talked about her. She sighed in a low voice once she got aboard the train, surprised she managed to find an empty seat amongst the dozens of people aboard the train.

Sumire felt a bit of loneliness as she sat down on her seat, looking around. There wasn’t anyone that looked to be around her age as they were mostly adults, which caused her loneliness to extend. Thankfully, she noticed her station was coming up as she looked up, seeing an old lady.

“Um… p-please, take my seat… My station’s coming up...” Sumire smiled a bit at her as she got up.

“Are ya sure? Then…” 

Sumire moved over to let the old lady sit when another man next to her immediately took it at incredible speed. She let out a small ‘Eep!’ at the rate that it happened, but she didn’t want to remain silent at this injustice either.

“Um… e-excuse me… that seat was for this lady…” Sumire said, fidgeting her fingers.

The man paid no attention to her as he fell asleep. Sumire felt useless. Even at an injustice like this, she couldn’t do anything. She looked down annoyedly as she was close to crying, when suddenly…

“Get up.”

The voice belonged to none other than Akira himself as he held his hand on the man’s shoulder firmly.

“Huh? And who the hell you ar-”

“I  _ said,  _ get up.” Akira cut the man short, with more venom in his voice as the man got scared and immediately got up, taking a bit of a distance from them as the lady went to sit down.

“S-Senpai… y-you didn’t have to…” Sumire was shocked at the pace all of that had happened.

“No, I had to. I wasn’t going to let you feel bad about yourself like that because of him.” He turned to the old lady that was sitting. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay, dearie.” The old lady smiled at both of them.

Just as Sumire was about to speak once again, the train announcer spoke up.

“Now arriving at Aoyama-Itchome.”

“Come on, let’s get moving, Sumire.” Akira smiled at her as he moved to the exit, prompting Sumire to follow him. He waited outside as Sumire looked up at him.

“Senpai…? Why’d you do that?”

“Like I said… You looked like you were frustrated, so I thought I’d lend a hand. You’re not feeling bad, are you?”

“N-No! Not at all! Um… we should probably get to the school, Senpai… before we’re late…”

He nodded as the two of them left the train station and towards the school with their umbrellas open. Thankfully, due to how dark it was, no one really paid any attention to them, as Sumire felt like she’d had to deal with those rumours once again if it wasn’t a rainy day. Both of them parted their ways inside the school by waving at each other. Sumire made her way to the class, hoping that today would not be too difficult for her to manage.

“Yoshizawa-san, was it?”

“H-Huh!?” Sumire looked at the teacher speaking to her as she was busy looking down on her notes rather than the teacher’s lecture. “Y-Yes?” She said, focusing entirely on the teacher.

“Answer this question please: Does cold water reach boiling point faster than hot water?”

“Umm… uh…” Sumire thought for a few moments before she spoke up. “N-No, I-I don’t think it does!”

“That is correct, Yoshizawa-san.” The teacher smiled at her, prompting the other students to look amazed with her.

“What? I thought it was supposed to boil faster… how did she know that!?”

“Maybe she isn’t as bad as she seems? Even I thought it was supposed to boil faster...”

“Well, she still killed her sister! Right?”

Sumire went silent as she looked down towards her table before the teacher took control of the situation.

“Alright, settle down, class! While it is true that cold water gets heat faster, that does not mean it boils more quickly. After the water reaches a certain heat level, it boils just as fast as any other hot water.”

‘...And yet those people think I am cursed when they don’t realise how any of this works..’ Sumire thought to herself, frustrated.

* * *

  
  
  


Sumire opened up her phone as the lunch break finally arrived, clicking on Akira’s chat icon as she started typing.

_ Senpai, do you want to eat lunch together? _

_ Sure, I’ll make way over to the cafeteria.  _

  
  


_ See you there, Senpai. _

Sumire smiled a tiny bit after texting Akira. She noticed that whenever she texted Akira, a sense of happiness would fill her. ‘Probably because he’s the only friend I have, though…’ Sumire thought to herself as she walked out of the classroom and into the cafeteria, forcefully drowning out the people talking about her until she finally got to the cafe.

She looked into her bag, able to find her lunchbox with much haste... along with another one that had a note attached to it.

“Hi, sweetie! You were really tired yesterday, so I decided to make your lunch for you and put it in your bag! I also made extra in case you wanted to eat together with your boyfriend!”

Sumire immediately blushed up upon reading the note as she continued staring down at it. ‘W-We’re not dating, though! M-Mom! You’re so mean…’

“Hey, Sumire!” Akira called out to her upon his arrival at the cafeteria, sending her a wave. “How are you doing?”

“S-Senpai!?” She looked up, still blushing a bit. “U-Um... I-I’m fine!” She said, rapidly fidgeting with her fingers after she took a deep breath. Akira just looked confusedly at her.

“Something wrong?” He asked, bringing his hands together as he went to sit down near her.

“N-No, nothing at all!” Her blush somewhat went away as she shook her head. “Um… I… brought food for you too, Senpai…” She looked up at him with a tiny smile.

“Really? You didn’t have to, but thank you.” He said, with a warm smile. “What did you make?”

“I-It’s a secret!” Sumire said, as she removed the note from the top of the lunch box and brought two of them out with chopsticks. “U-Um… I hope you’ll like it, Senpai…” She opened her own lunch box to see it was full of Shrimp tempura with onigiri. ‘Of course, she’d cook the one I like the most…’ Sumire thought to herself, unable to hide her smile as she started eating.

“It’s actually delicious, Sumire!” Akira said, eating the food while being unable to contain his smile. “Thank you!”

“U-Um… i-it’s no problem, Senpai! I’m glad you like it!”

“Say… do you have any plans today?” Akira asked, adjusting his glasses.

“Oh.. um… actually, I do Senpai… I will have to go to training today… why do you ask?”

“Oh, you have training? What type of training is it?” He asked her, intrigued.

“Um… well, it’s Gymnastics… b-but really, it’s nothing all that special…”

“That sounds even more amazing, actually.” He said, scratching his head. “So, I take it you cook food as well?”

“M-Mhm! Although, I learned how to cook because of my gymnastics as I needed a balanced diet…”

“Oh, I see…” He returned to eating. “We should probably finish up. The break’s almost up.”

“O-Oh, right!” Sumire went back to eating from her lunchbox. Both of them waved each other goodbye once again as they left for their respective classrooms.

* * *

  
  


“Yo.” Ryuji said, stopping Akira on the exit.

“Ryuji? What’s up?” Akira replied, looking at him.

“I wanna talk about that castle from yesterday.” Ryuji folded his arms. “I tried tellin’ myself it was all just a dream… but I couldn’t do it.”

“Nah, none of that was a dream.” Akira adjusted his glasses. ‘Why would you think that’s a dream, anyway?’

“Well, I can’t act like nothing happened. It’s all connected to that bastard Kamoshida, after all.”

“So… what are you suggesting we do, exactly?” Akira asked, folding his arms as well.

“I wanna find out what’s up with that place, no matter what. And y’know, you and that Yoshizawa girl are the only ones I can trust you about this... Speaking of which, did you see her today?”

“Yeah, we had lunch together. But she said she’ll be busy with training today-”

“Wait.. you had lunch with her!? Dude, it’s only the second day, and you’re already making a move on a girl!?” Ryuji looked confused.

“It’s nothing like that.” He said, letting go of his arms. “She just wanted to invite me for lunch, that’s all. We had a bit of a chat and stuff.

“Oh, I see... Well, nevermind that... I think we should try to retrace our steps from yesterday. In the meantime, you’re walking to the station, right? Let’s go together.” He then smirked at him. “Let me know if you notice any weird buildings on the way.”

‘...Well, I guess I can trust him for this. He doesn’t seem like a bad guy.’ Akira nodded at him. “Alright, whatever you say. Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! I was planning on making this chapter longer, but I was advised to end it as it was already 5k words and there'd have been too many things happening at once in the chapter.
> 
> I experimented with switching the Pov from time to time towards Akira for the story if Sumire is not present. I hope you guys will like that!
> 
> Also, I hope you enjoyed the fluff thing I wrote for the chapter! Huge thanks to Dev0ted for helping me with the ideas and huge thanks to chriscruise03 for beta reading for me!


	4. Seeds of Doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira and Ryuji look for the mysterious castle again while Sumire is trying her best at her training. How does it go for either party?

Akira and Ryuji made their way back to the first position they walked from when they stumbled into the castle. ‘This is stupid… Nothing happened when I arrived here in the morning.’ Akira internally sighed to himself, trying his best to hide his irritation.

“If a huge castle like that really exists, I’m sure we’ll find it in no time.” Ryuji said, both of them finally arriving at the spot...

“Anyone else would’ve noticed it if it actually exists, though.” Akira adjusted his glasses.

“Dude, we both saw it, it has to exist!” Ryuji clenched his hand into a fist. “Listen, if only three people know it exists, then that means we can probably find it again!”

“Right… Probably.” Akira sarcastically said, staring into Ryuji’s eyes.

“Whatever, dude…” Ryuji sighed. “We walked that way from here, right?”

“I believe so. It does look familiar enough to me.” Akira shrugged, looking back to the street that leads to the school. “Can we just go already?”

“You should take this a bit more seriously, y’know…” Ryuji hung his head low. “All right, this way. Let me know if you notice something.” Ryuji started walking back to the school, using the route from yesterday.

“Got it.” Akira looked at the time by checking his phone. ‘This better not take too long, or I’ll probably never hear the end of it. At least Sumire isn’t here if we do stumble into it…’ Akira slightly smiled to himself, putting away his phone.

Akira didn’t notice anything off in the way as they arrived at the school gates. He sighed audibly this time as he looked at Ryuji.

“...Huh?” Ryuji said, scratching his head. “We’re at school… There wasn’t anything out of place along the way, right? I didn’t see no castle either…”

“There wasn’t, no.” Akira glanced over the area as he saw everything is the same.

“We must’ve made a wrong turn somewhere...” Ryuji turned to him. “Let’s try again.”

“I don’t think that’s really gonna work… We should change our approach.” Akira pulled out his phone and checked the time. “We shouldn’t take too long, either.”

“But what else can we do?” Ryuji kicked some dirt off the ground. 

“Did you check your phone to see if the place exists?” Akira looked up at him.

“I already did that. I didn’t see anything like that around here…” Ryuji’s eyes suddenly widened. “Huh? Phone… Hey, that reminds me -- didn’t you have a navigation app thingy on, back then?” 

“Navigation app? Hm…” Akira tugged at his bangs, thinking. “It did sound like it, now that I remember.”

“I dunno if it was or not, but I heard stuff that sounded like one coming from your phone.” Ryuji checked his surroundings, seemingly thinking. “Y’know, didn’t it say stuff like ‘returned to the real world’ or something like that? Let me see your phone for a bit.”

Akira went to hand his phone over to him when Ryuji immediately snatched it away from him. Akira glared at Ryuji but adjusted his glasses to cover his expression. Ryuji touched the phone a few times before looking up at Akira. “What’s this eyeball-lookin’ thing?”

Akira shrugged. “I couldn’t delete it.”

“...Wait, what?” Ryuji looked back at the phone. “What a weird app… Oh, wait! This is it!” Ryuji tapped on the phone a few more times before showing it to Akira. “I knew it--it IS a navigation app! There’s even your search history!” Ryuji closed his eyes, smiling. “Oh man, I’m such a genius!”

‘I guess even a dumb monkey can be smart sometimes…’ Akira smiled a tiny bit, before quickly changing his expression. “Nice one.”

“Let’s try using it.” Ryuji looked at Akira, smirking.

“I dunno about this. What if we end up there again and get caught?” Akira said, staring at him.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine! All we’re doin’ is startin’ an app!” Ryuji navigated through the app a bit more before a voice came out from the phone.

“Kamoshida… Shujin Academy… Pervert… Castle… Beginning navigation.”

“...There we go!” Ryuji pumped his fist. “Then, we went in a certain direction and--”

Akira suddenly winced as he felt a shaking sensation in his head, followed by slight nausea. He looked up, seeing the sky turn into a purple-ish colour.

“...Huh!?” Ryuji looked up. “What the hell!?” 

As Akira felt the shaking sensation in his head continue, the… ‘reality’ around him started to warp with what seemed to be a brief pulsing sensation of red circles as nausea took over him, causing him to lose his sense of reality. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes as the castle from yesterday stood in front of him once again.

“Look! It’s the castle from yesterday!” Ryuji looked around for a few moments, before deciding to run through the open castle gate as Akira followed him behind. He stopped in front of the doors they previously entered from as Ryuji looked around, before turning back to Akira.

“We made it back… That means what happened yesterday was real too…”

“Of course it was.” Akira said, looking at the previous way they used for escaping. ‘I wonder if that cat thing is still around…’

Ryuji suddenly shook as he looked at Akira, catching his attention. “Yeargh! Those clothes…”

“What are you talking abo-” Akira couldn’t finish his sentence as he looked at his hand, noticing that his entire outfit had changed. ‘This is… interesting.’ Akira thought to himself, still studying his clothing in surprise.

“That happened last time too, huh!?” Ryuji folded his arms. “What’s with that outfit!?”

“What, you jealous?” Akira smirked at him.

“I-I ain’t jealous!” Ryuji replied, putting his hands in his pockets. “What’s goin’ on here, though!? This makes no effin’ sense at all…” 

“Hey!”

The two of them got startled as they looked at the direction of the voice. It was none other than Morgana himself as he ran up to them. “Stop making a commotion.”

“Ah… You!?” Ryuji said, angrily staring at the cat-like creature.

“Oh, hey Morgana.” Akira casually said, looking at the cat-like creature. 

Morgana shook his head, looking down. “The Shadows started acting up so I came here wondering what it could be…” Morgana sighed out loud. “...To think you guys would come back to the entrance when you barely managed to escape.”

“Hey… What is this place?” Ryuji scratched his head. “...Is it the school?”

“That’s right.” Morgana looked up at Ryuji, nodding.

“But it’s a castle!” Ryuji yelled out.

“This castle IS the school. But only to the castle’s ruler.”

“The castle’s ruler…?” Ryuji asked, confusedly.

“Yeah… I don’t exactly know who he is-”

“Tch… You’re probably talking about Kamoshida.” Ryuji cut Morgana short. “That bastard was the one ordering those guards around!”

“Right.” Morgana put his hands on his waist. “It’s how his distorted heart views the school.”

“Kamoshida… Distorted…”

Akira and Ryuji looked at each other for a moment. “I think I get it.” Akira said, turning back to the cat. 

“I wouldn’t have expected less from you, Frizzy hair!” Morgana smiled at him.

“How did you get that!?” Ryuji looked at Akira with wide eyes, then turned back to Morgana. “Explain it in a way to me that makes sense!”

Morgana narrowed his eyes as he stared at Ryuji. “I shouldn’t have expected a moron to get it…”

“What’d you say!?” Ryuji clenched his fist at the cat. A sudden scream suddenly interrupted the moment, prompting the three of them to search the area.

“What was that!?” Ryuji yelled out.

“It must be the slaves captive here.” Morgana responded, thinking as he looked down.

“Yeah… Didn’t we see prisoners while we were escaping?” 

“No way…” As Ryuji finished, they heard another scream coming from the castle. “This shit’s for real! I’m pretty sure those prisoners we saw were from our school!”

“Most likely on Kamoshida’s orders.” Morgana folded his arms, looking at Ryuji. “It’s nothing out of the ordinary; it’s like this every day here.” He turned to Akira. “What’s more, you two escaped yesterday. He must have lost his temper quite a bit.”

“Right… that happened.” Akira awkwardly smiled at Morgana as he scratched his head.

“...That son of a bitch!” Ryuji muttered under his breath.

“Ryuji?” Akira turned to him as he tried to put his hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong-”

“...This is bullshit!” Ryuji immediately rushed towards the door to force it open, to no avail. “You hear me, Kamoshida!?

“Doing that isn’t going to force it open, you know…” Morgana burrowed his eyes as he looked at Ryuji. “Still, it seems like you have your reasons.”

Ryuji gave up trying to force open the door as he walked back to the group. “Hey, Monamona!”

“It’s MORGANA!” The cat yelled out, angrily staring at Ryuji.

“Do you know where those voices are coming from?” Ryuji asked.

“You want me to take you to them…?” Morgana folded his arms as he looked down, then turned to Akira. “Well, I guess I could guide you there… But only if he comes with us.”

Akira turned to Ryuji with a serious expression. “You sure you want to do this, Ryuji?”

“Of course, I’m sure!” Ryuji clenched his fist. “And you got that weird power with you too, so we can get through those Shadows or whatever!”

“He’s right.” Morgana said, getting both of their attention. “This is a chance for me to get a better look at your powers too.”

‘Hm… I guess it benefits everyone in the end.’ Akira thought for a moment as he held his chin, before looking at both of them. “Sure, let’s do it.”

“For real? Thanks, man!” Ryuji said, smiling at him. 

“All right, then it’s settled. Follow me!” Morgana led them to the vent as they used it to enter the mysterious castle once again. ‘I’m glad Sumire isn’t around this time… I hope she’s alright… Wonder how her training is going at the moment.’ Akira thought to himself as he walked up to the vent.

* * *

  
  


‘Why am I failing like this..!?’ Sumire thought to herself as she tried her best to keep her balance on one leg. The previous practices didn’t go well either today. Her coach wasn’t impressed by her boxing. Worst of all, she struggled with sticking the landing after jumping with the ribbon, something she could typically and quickly achieve under any circumstance.

“Sumire, I believe that’s enough for today.” Her coach spoke up with a firm voice, prompting Sumire to stop as she looked down. 

“Coach… I’m sorry… I-I don’t know what got over me today…”

“It’s clear you’re having trouble focusing.” She sighed, walking up to her. “You need to figure out who you are, Sumire.”

“...H-Huh? What do you mean, coach…?” Sumire held the ribbon closer to her as she had a pained expression. “I-I don’t understand…”

“I noticed that you were trying to imitate your sister’s moves again when I told you to find your own style. You still clearly haven’t understood a thing.” Her coach folded her arms, shaking her head. “You need to find your own path, am I clear? Until you do, I can’t allow you to practice.”

Sumire looked up to her coach. “But-”

“No.” Her coach quickly said, silencing Sumire as she let out a small “Eep!” as she looked down. 

‘I am useless after a-all... K-Kasumi…’ Sumire could barely hold her tears back. “Yes, it is your own fault!” Everything around her turned dark as she saw the yellow-eyed figure in front of her once again. “I am finally free! Hahahaha!” The yellow-eyed thing laughed, with the scenery around Sumire returning to normal.

  
  


“Sumire?” Her coach asked, catching her attention.

“Y-Yes?”

“You were dozing off there… Are you alright?”

Sumire only nodded in response as she wiped her eyes, her coach raising an eyebrow as she decided to ignore it for now.

“And besides, your parents called me saying you met a boy at school that seemingly made you happy. Why don’t you go hang out with him until we start again?” Her coach smiled a bit as she stared at Sumire in the eyes directly.

“H-Huh…? Coach…?”

Her coach chuckled a bit as she looked down for a moment. “Go hang out with him for about a week or so. Just enjoy yourself for a while. Then we’ll pick up again next week. Alright?”

“A-Alright, coach…” Sumire fidgeted with her fingers for a moment, before leaving for the locker room. ‘Maybe she’s right… Maybe Senpai is the one I need to hang out with…’ Sumire thought to herself, unable to hide her tiny smile as she thought about him. But at the same time, what her coach told her also bothered her. ‘...Why am I trying to imitate Kasumi…? Maybe I should talk to Senpai…’ Sumire finally arrived at the locker room, taking in a breath as she went to get her clothes. ‘...I wonder what he is doing right now?’

* * *

  
  


Akira felt himself getting exhausted as the Shadows continued their assault, severely outnumbering them. 

“This is bad!” Morgana rushed up to one of the two-horned horse-like Shadows with his scimitar, attempting to cut the Shadow in half. Unfortunately, he got rammed by another one from his side. He flied in the air for about three meters before hitting the ground on his face.

“Morgana!” Akira clenched his fist as he went to rip off his mask. “Arsène!” The Persona wearing a red coat and boots with blade-like heels and a top hat appeared just in time. It took the brunt of the hit from one of the charging Shadows. Akira winced in pain slightly as Arsène got hit, but the Persona quickly retaliated and stabbed the Shadow with its heel, causing the Shadow to leak out black ooze from the wound. Akira grabbed his gun from his coat, intent on shooting the shadow to finish it. Alas, another Shadow charged into him from behind, forcing him to fall to the ground.

Kamoshida let out a small laugh as the Shadows turned back to their fake guard forms. He stepped on Morgana full force. 

“Rgh…! You piece of…” Was all Morgana could mutter out.

‘Is this how it ends…?’ Akira thought to himself, trying to force himself to get from the ground, but another Shadow stepped on him, preventing him from getting up.

“I bet you simply came here on a whim and ended up like this. Isn’t that right?” Kamoshida smirked, staring down at Ryuji who was now on his knees. “You didn’t bring that sexy gymnast because you were scared, right? Just like in the morning.” Kamoshida stared at Akira, with a hint of anger in his voice.

‘Bastard…!’ Akira tried getting up from the ground, but the Shadow pressed its foot on his back.

“No…” Ryuji said, in a weak voice.

Kamoshida turned to Ryuji again. “What a worthless piece of trash, getting emotional so quickly… How dare you raise your hand at me?” Kamoshida stepped on Morgana a bit more as he let out more screams of pain. “Though it was only temporary, have you forgotten my kindness in supervising track practice?”

Ryuji hit the ground upon hearing that, laying down in despair as he avoided looking at others. “Wasn’t no practice -- it was physical abuse! You just didn’t like our team!”

Kamoshida angrily stared at Ryuji, clenching his fist. “It was nothing but an eyesore! The only one who needs to achieve results is me!” He paused for a moment, his expression changing to a smirk again. “That coach who got fired was hopeless, too… Had he not opposed me with a sound argument, I would’ve settled with only breaking his star’s leg.”

“...What?” Ryuji’s eyes were wide as he looked up to Kamoshida. 

“Do you need me to deal with your other leg too? The school will call it self-defence anyway!” Kamoshida disturbingly smiled at Akira. “Just like your gymnast friend when I will have so much fun with her, and nobody will care!”

“...I will fucking kill you.” Akira said, almost managing to get up from the Shadow’s foot before getting pressed down, prompting Kamoshida to let out a chuckle.

“Dammit… Am I gonna lose again?” Ryuji looked down on the ground. “Not only can I not run anymore… The track team is gone too cause of this asshole… And now he’s targeting Yoshizawa next…”

“So that’s why…” Morgana barely muttered out, looking at Ryuji. Kamoshida stepped on Morgana fully this time, prompting him to let out more painful noises.

“Once these two are dealt with, you’re next.” Kamoshida let out a creepy laugh, staring at Ryuji.

“R-Ryuji!” Morgana yelled out.

“...Stand up to this asshole!” Akira yelled out.

Ryuji suddenly glanced up at Akira, shock in his eyes. “I… I can’t…”

“No, you can! You came here despite knowing the risks, doing what you thought was right-” The Shadow applied more pressure to his back, utterly silencing him as he cried out in pain.

“...You’re right. Everything that was important to me was taken by him… I’ll never be able to get ‘em back!”

“Stay there and watch.” Kamoshida said, with a smug voice. “Look on as these hopeless scum die for nothing because they sided with trash like you.”

“No… that’s what you are…” Ryuji finally managed to get up from the ground as he gave Kamoshida a death stare. “All you think about is using people… You’re the real scumbag, Kamoshida!”

“What are you doing, silence him!” Kamoshida said, turning to the other guards for a moment before turning to Ryuji again, smiling widely at him.

Ryuji pointed his finger at Kamoshida and took a few steps towards him, the fear in his voice no longer present. “Stop lookin’ down on me with that stupid smile on your face!”

After he said that, Ryuji suddenly started spazzing as he cried out in pain, holding his head as he laid down on the ground and continued to spazz.

**_You made me wait quite a while…_ **

**_You seek power, correct? Then let us form a pact._ **

**_Since your name has been disgraced already, why not hoist the flag and wreak havoc?_ **

Ryuji stopped moving on the ground as he glared at Kamoshida, slowly rising from the ground. His legs were shaking as he stood still, almost as if he was about ready to fall from exhaustion.

**_The “other you” who exists within desires it thus…_ **

**_I am thou, thou art I…_ **

**_There is no turning back…_ **

**_The skull of rebellion is your flag henceforth!_ **

A mask appeared on Ryuji’s face as blue flames briefly covered his eyes as he glared at Kamoshida, his yellow eyes appearing more clearly than before.

“Hmph. What can you do?” The Shadow stepping on Akira said. “Cower in fear and watch!” It raised its sword, ready to bring it on Akira’s head. Still in pain, Ryuji went to pull off his mask as it came off with his skin, the mask covering him entirely in a blue pillar of fire as the energy pushed back the Shadows. As the power died down, it revealed Ryuji in a new outfit. He had a black jacket and pants with what appeared to be metal pads on his sides, and a belt filled up with ammo. All of this gave him the impression of a thug, with a red ascot completing the look. He smirked at Kamoshida, his Persona standing strong behind him.

“Right on time… Wassup Persona… This effin’ rocks!” Ryuji said, looking at his gloves on his hand. “Now that I got this power, it’s time for a payback…” Akira and Morgana got up from the ground, making their way next to Ryuji, each one preparing for battle. “Yo, I’m ready…. Bring it!” Ryuji yelled out to the Shadow in golden armour.

“Ngh… Don’t mock me, you brat!” The Shadow in golden armour yelled out, as it slammed the sword on the ground. It transformed into a knight on a horse as the other two-horned horse Shadows stood next to the knight.

“Blast him away… Captain Kidd!” Ryuji pointed at the golden Shadow, with the gun the Persona is holding glowing yellow as it ‘fired’ an arc of lightning at the Shadow, causing it to wince in pain.

“Arsène!” Akira ripped off his mask as the Persona came out. It flew towards the same Shadow Ryuji attacked and hit the shadow by horizontally swiping its legs, tearing off part of the armour in the process.

“Zorro! Garu!” Morgana yelled out, holding the ground as Zorro came out and lightly swung the sword around, collecting the surrounding wind towards it before sending it all towards the Shadow. Black ooze started coming out from the armour as the Shadow looked tired.

“This’ll hurt!” One of the two-horned shadows lunged at Morgana in hopes of ramming into him, with Morgana barely able to get out of the way as he retaliated by firing his slingshot at the Shadow in midair, hitting it right on its head.

“Take this, you brat!” Another one called out, rushing towards the just landed Morgana, managing to ram him from behind and make him fly about two meters back as Morgana managed to stick the landing.

However, the one on the horse used the spear in its hand to swipe at Ryuji, causing part of the metal pads on his clothing to come off as he felt the hit. 

“Shit!” Ryuji yelled out, picking himself up from the ground before summoning his Persona once again. “Captain Kidd!” He ripped off his mask as the Persona fired an arc of lightning to the one on the right, causing it to shriek in pain as it fell to the ground. He quickly fired another one to the one on the left as it seemed very much close to death.

“Take this, you bastard!” Ryuji yelled out as a metal pipe appeared in his hands, rushing towards the shadow with it. He jumped at the shadow and hit it in the stomach as hard as possible, causing the Shadow to fall off from the horse.

“I am… a loyal subject… of the glorious King Kamoshida… So why… have I lost!?” The Shadow yelled out.

“It just proves that Kamoshida ain’t anything special!” Ryuji smirked, turning to the others. “Guys, on me!” Ryuji yelled out, as he and the others rushed towards the Shadows in the blink of an eye, cutting through them as they kept dashing through them with incredible pace. Soon after, they all landed together as the Shadows sprayed out black ooze within themselves, vanishing into dust soon after.

Ryuji repeatedly gasped as he tried to catch his breath, staring at Kamoshida afterwards. “...How ‘bout that!?”

“Whoa… So Ryuji had the potential too…” Morgana said, with wide eyes.

“Even if you apologise now… I ain’t forgiving you!” Ryuji yelled out, glaring at Kamoshida.

“You’re gonna pay for thinking of Sumire like that.” Akira said, staring at the Shadow as he desperately wanted to shoot it with his gun. ‘Sumire… I won’t let anything like that happen to you.’ 

* * *

  
  


“Sumire?” Akane asked, catching her attention.

“Y-Yes, mom?” Sumire asked, her eyes wide as she slightly blushed.

“You were dozing off there… Were you thinking of something?” She came closer to her as she stared directly at her in the eyes. “Or Perhaps… Maybe you were thinking of your boyfriend?”

“M-Mom!” Sumire covered her eyes, causing her mom to laugh out as Shinichi let out another sigh, ruffling Sumire’s hair in a comforting manner.

“Did you two like the food I made for you, sweetie? Do you want another one like that too?”

Sumire let out an aggravated noise as Akane kept on laughing. 

“You made food for them, Akane?” Shinichi asked, surprise evident in his eyes.

“Mhm! Our little princess was tired yesterday, so I thought it’d be a good opportunity for them to bond together!” Akane said, sitting down on a nearby chair as she looked at Sumire.

“U-Um… T-Thank you for the food, Mom…” Sumire moved her hands away from her face. “I-It was really nice… Although I told him I made the food... S-Sorry about that-”

“You did? That’s even better, sweetie! The way to a boy’s heart goes through his stomach, after all!”

“Mooom…!” Sumire blushed lightly again, sighing and getting up from the table since she was done eating. “Um… T-Thank you for the food!” She picked up her bag from the ground nearby, immediately making her way upstairs as the laughter of Akane and the chuckle of Shinichi filled the house. ‘T-They are so m-mean!’ Sumire thought to herself, immediately walking into her room and shutting down the door as she flopped herself down on her bed. “Ugh… Senpai…” She said out as she pulled out of her phone, noticing a message from Akira.

_Hey, are you alright?_

She smiled a tiny bit seeing how he cared about her like that.

_I’m alright, Senpai! How are you?_

_Eh, I’m alright too. Just a bit tired._

Sumire anxiously waited as she saw the “...” icon on the phone for a bit. It indicated he has been typing for a while. ‘What could it be…?’ Sumire anxiously waited for the response.

_Listen, that Kamoshida guy? I don’t mean to worry you, but maybe it’d be for the best if you stick with me. We were told that we have a volleyball rally tomorrow and he’ll be there. So make sure to be close to me just in case, alright?_

“S-Senpai….” Sumire silently said, anxiety slowly taking over her as she remembered how her teacher told them something like that too.

_Okay… I will, thank you for the warning, Senpai… See you tomorrow?_

_Yeah, see you._

She turned off her phone with worry as she went to put it away nearby. ‘Why is this happening to me…? Is it because I… I killed…’ Sumire stopped herself from thinking as she felt some tears getting to her eyes again. ‘I-I’ll just do my homework and rest…’ Sumire got up from her bed as she picked up her bag to pull out her books and went to do the Math homework she had. It seemed a bit hard, consisting of algebra questions.

“For 13x-25 = 9x - 13, find the value of x.” Was written on the paper as Sumire stared at the question for a while, remembering that she just has to ‘move’ the lower value x into the higher value x on the other side. She gleamed in happiness as she managed to solve this question, with each one being similar as well. ‘This isn’t so hard at all!’ Sumire giggled to herself, going through her homework until she felt tired and unable to continue.

* * *

  
  


‘Senpai… Where are you…?’ Sumire looked around in the gym as the match was about to commence. She already felt uncomfortable and disgusted upon seeing the teacher. Using some people as cover, she looked around the gym until she saw Akira gesture towards her, immediately moving towards him. Ryuji was sitting down next to him as well.

“Hey, how’re you doing?” Akira asked, adjusting his glasses.

“Heya, Yoshizawa.” Ryuji smiled, waving at her.

“H-Hi! Um… I’m fine, Senpai!” She paused for a moment, looking around to see where Kamoshida was. Luckily he seemed occupied as she spotted him talking to others. “Um… Thank you for looking out for me. I already felt uncomfortable upon seeing him…” Sumire fidgeted with her fingers. Shortly after, a whistle was heard throughout the gym, starting the match.

“Why don’t you sit down, Sumire?” Akira asked.

“Oh, sure…” She went to sit down to the left of Akira as she matched the on-going match. It was rather dull to her, but she noticed how much power Kamoshida was using behind his shots as if he wanted to hurt the students. “How is that even allowed…?” Sumire asked, her eyes a bit wide.

“Nobody would care even if you raised a complaint, anyways…”

Sumire noticed how Kamoshida hit a blue-haired kid on his stomach a bit roughly as she almost let out a gasp. ‘He’s so cruel… Nobody seems safe from him at all…’ Sumire looked down, feeling more anxious.

“Still sticks out… Hasn’t changed a bit.” Ryuji said, looking at a girl towards their right who was sitting on a chair. Sumire and Akira looked at the direction he was looking at, noticing how the girl stood out. She had platinum blonde hair with two pigtails as she was playing with her hair with a bored expression. She looked up, noticing the three of them were watching her as Ryuji quickly yawned. “Pretty boring, right?”

Akira chuckled a bit at Ryuji while Sumire decided to look away to watch the match. She sighed a bit. 

‘Can this end already…?’ She thought to herself when suddenly Kamoshida jumped up to respond to a ball while seemingly looking at her. It was a little too late as Sumire felt herself freeze and the ball hit her right in the chest, causing her glasses to come off as she immediately fell to the ground. Everything looked so blurry to her as her sense of hearing has gone away again. Akira was seemingly talking to her, panic in his eyes, but she couldn’t understand him. Sumire’s eyes widened a tiny bit upon noticing that Kamoshida was walking towards her, everything around her turning into pitch dark as Kamoshida himself turned into that… Thing with yellow eyes, creepily smiling.

“N-No…!” Sumire barely muttered as she tried to get up, her sense of hearing somewhat returning. She could barely breathe as it was too painful. Akira looked up to see who was coming as well before Ryuji blocked Kamoshida from getting too close.

“What is the meaning of this, Sakamoto?” Kamoshida angrily asked. “Let me see her. She needs to see a nurse.”

“Yeah well, let her friend take care of it!” Ryuji replied, still standing his ground.

“Hey, Sumire… Come on…” Akira picked up Sumire’s glasses and put them in his pocket. He helped Sumire up by holding her hand. “Can you walk?” Akira asked, to which Sumire nodded. Her legs were shaking, so Akira took her arm over his neck to help her move. 

Everything seemed so foggy to her from the moment they started walking. She held her chest, unable to breathe properly as she was in a lot of pain. During the middle of the way, Sumire lost the feeling of her surroundings before everything turned dark once again.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took WAY longer than it should've for me to release. I apologize for the wait! I felt some burnout while I was writing this chapter and chriscruise03, my beta reader had to deal with irl things, so as a result, I had to delay the chapter to make sure it was as best as it could be.
> 
> In either case, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next up I might update my other fic before updating this again, or update this straight-up later.
> 
> Also thank you chriscruise03, and Doq for beta reading for me!


	5. Useless...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sumire experiences an... interesting dream, seeing someone familiar before waking up in the nurse's office.

Sumire found herself in a dark place upon opening her eyes, unable to see anything and realising that she was seemingly floating on nothingness. “Huh…?” Sumire asked, looking around with panic filling her voice. “W-Where…”.

“Sumire…”

Sumire turned around when she heard the sound, noticing someone familiar looking.

“W-Who are y-you?” Sumire looked at her closely for a moment, before recognising her as…“K-Kasumi…? W-Why are you here…?”

“I was just here to check on my little sister!” Kasumi said, giggling. “But the truth is, I’m not really ‘here’. Actually, I just wanted to say something…” Her expression turned into a serious one, looking at Sumire in the eyes. “Everything… was…”

Before she could finish, a light engulfed the dark place, seemingly covering Kasumi as she started disappearing. 

“N-No… C-Come back! Kasumi!” Sumire cried out, trying to reach her, but it was to no avail as she vanished. “K-Kasumi…” Sumire fell on her knees as she started crying before everything around her turned into a blinding light once again.

Sumire woke up, gasping for air, checking her surroundings with tears in her eyes. She noticed that Akira was sitting next to her as he looked at her in surprise.

“Sumire, take it easy…” Akira said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “We’re in the nurse’s office. You passed out on the way, so I had to carry you.”

“O-Oh…” Sumire tried getting up, but she felt a sharp pain in her chest, causing her to gasp. Akira stopped her by raising his hand and pushing her back with the hand on her shoulder. “I-I’m sorry, Senpai…” Sumire went to wipe her tears after the pain in her chest had subsided, to which Akira profoundly sighed.

“You must’ve had a nightmare…” Akira removed his hand from her shoulder, looking at her in the eyes. “… Do you want to talk about it?”

“I… Maybe later, Senpai…” She barely muttered. “Um… W-Where’s my glasses, Senpai…? Everything’s so blurry…”

“Oh, those?” Akira picked out the glasses from his pocket, placing it on the table next to her. “Don’t worry. You’re safe here.”

“T-Thank you, Senpai… For helping me like this… H-How long am I going to be here?”

“The nurse said you need an hour or so before you can move. But don’t worry, I don’t plan on leaving you alone.” Akira adjusted his glasses. “How are you feeling, by the way?”

“I… I don’t know. It doesn’t hurt much if I don’t move…” Sumire said, closing her eyes. ‘I just want to go home…’ Sumire thought to herself.

“Do you need anything to drink?”

“Not at the moment, no…” Everything was still a bit foggy for her until she finally remembered what happened clearly, causing her eyes to open wide. “S-Senpai, W-What if he comes-”

“I won’t let him near you.” Akira told her, staring at her with such seriousness that left her speechless. “Even if it means I’d get expelled. It’s just… the right thing to do.”

The two of them stared at each other in silence, letting those words echo throughout the nurse’s office.

“S-Senpai…” Sumire decided to speak up. “H-How will I ever repay your kindness…?” She moved her eyes away from him, already feeling like a burden. “Especially after how much you’ve done for me…”

“You don’t owe me anything.” He smiled at her. “It’s what… true friends would do for each other.” Akira closed his eyes, looking down.

“Is… everything okay, Senpai…?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” He opened his eyes again, smiling at her. “Don’t worry about it. Focus on getting some rest, okay?” 

“...Mhm…” Sumire felt her head get heavier as moments went by. ‘I wish I could sleep, but that nightmare… And-” Sumire heard the door open. “N-No…” Sumire muttered out, unable to see who arrived as panic began to take over once again.

“Relax, Sumire… It’s the nurse.” Akira said, smiling at her reassuringly. 

“Oh…” Sumire sighed. The nurse walked over to her, looking at Sumire directly in the eyes.

“How do you feel?”

“I-I’m fine… Um, thank you…” Sumire smiled. ‘W-Why did I panic so much…? I need to relax…’

“I’m sure he already told you, but you should be fine to leave in an hour. It seems you got hit a bit hard, so it may still hurt a bit for a while.” The nurse paused, checking Sumire’s temperature by holding her hand over her forehead. “It seems you also got a slight fever. I recommend you head home directly and take it easy for the rest of the day.”

“Don’t worry, Ms. Reiki. We don’t have classes because of the volleyball rally at the moment.” Akira scratched his head. “I’ll help her back home. It should end in around an hour anyway.”

“That’s a good idea, in case anything happens.” The nurse smiled, going back to her desk as Sumire looked at him surprisingly. 

“H-Help me back, S-Senpai…? Um… Y-You really don’t-”

“Have to?” Akira replied, cutting her short. “Maybe I don’t have to, but I  _ want _ to.”

Sumire looked defeated, barely nodding as she closed her eyes for a moment before smiling as she looked at Akira. “Okay… U-Um, can you give me my phone, Senpai? It’s in my bag.”

“Did you want to text your parents?” Akira held his bang, looking at her.

She nodded in response as Akira went to check her bag and take her phone. She blushed slightly, realising she just allowed a boy to look through her belongings, but she didn’t mind since it was Akira. He went to hand it over to her, but she felt her arms too tired to pick up the phone. She got agitated, trying her best, but it was no use.

“Sumire, it’s okay.” Akira pushed her arm back to the bed, to which she tried to fight against but quickly complied, closing her eyes. 

‘I’m so useless… I can’t even do something simple…’

“Who do you want me to write it to?” Akira asked, holding her phone.

“Um… My Dad is fine, Senpai… “

Akira nodded as he started tapping on the screen to write. After a few moments, he put the phone on the table, smiling at her. “It sounds like your Dad wants to meet with me too.”

“Oh… Really? I-I see…” Sumire slowly closed her eyes. She was too tired to think about him meeting her Dad. “I feel a bit tired for some reason…”

“If you need to, go sleep for a bit. I’m sure you’ll feel alright. Besides, I’m not going anywhere.” He sent her a warm smile.

Sumire looked at him with solemn eyes, smiling a tiny bit in return. ‘Well, as long as he’s here… Maybe I’ll be fine…’ She felt her eyes get heavier and heavier, before finally closing them and falling asleep shortly after.

“Nngh…” Sumire slowly opened her eyes again. This time, she didn’t have a nightmare at all, or any dreams. She noticed Akira was still next to her, focused entirely on his phone, seemingly worried.

“Senpai…?” Sumire went to sit up on the bed, wincing as she felt the pain in her chest again.

“Oh, hey.” Akira quickly put away his phone, looking at her. “Does it still hurt?”

“It does… But not as much as before… Um, how long was I sleeping…?”

“About 45 minutes or so. It seems you do feel better though, since you managed to sit up.” Akira smiled at her.

“Oh, yeah…” She giggled a bit. “All my exhaustion has gone away.” She looked around, noticing there were more people here. “Oh… What happened?”

“It was because of the volleyball rally, apparently.” Akira adjusted his glasses. Sumire noticed that some of them had bandages on them as she stared in shock, before the nurse finally walked towards her. “Are you feeling better, Yoshizawa-san?”

“I am, yeah… Am I able to go, nurse?” Sumire asked, fidgeting.

“Mhm-hm. You may leave now. There was an announcement made where students are free to leave. Get better soon!”

Sumire got off the bed and on her foot, still feeling a bit of a pain in her chest as she suddenly got up. She grabbed her phone from the desk and put on her glasses. “Let’s go, Senpai...” Sumire made her way to the door, to which Akira nodded and followed her along as both of them left the nurse’s office.

Sumire noticed that there weren’t many people around thankfully, as they made their way downstairs to the main hall. ‘I’m glad we didn’t run into him…’ Sumire thought to herself, as she and Akira made their way to the school gates, heading out in the direction of the train station.

“I’m glad we didn’t run into him like before.” Akira puffed.

“Y-Yeah, me too… I was worried we might’ve…” Sumire adjusted her hair.

“So… where do you live at, Sumire?”

“Oh, um… It borders the Tama river. It’s a bit of a walk to get from the station to the home… Although I don’t mind it too much.” She giggled a bit.

“Really? That’s cool. Can’t wait to meet your parents.” He chuckled for a bit, before smiling at her. “I’m glad you’re feeling happy, Sumire.”

“T-Thank you! Um… I’m sure they are looking forward to meeting you too, S-Senpai…” She blushed a bit. ‘I hope they at least don’t tease me when he’s there…’

Soon after, they both arrived at the train station and made their way to the train platform. After a few minutes of waiting, the train arrived and both of them managed to find two empty seats, sitting next to each other. Sumire winced a bit as she sat down, but the pain went away soon after.

“So… Sumire.” Akira said, catching her attention as she turned to him. “You said you cook, right? What do you usually cook?

“Umm… Well, it changes really… Depending on what type of food I have to eat…” She giggled. 

“So would it be safe to say you can cook a vast amount of things in that case?” Akira looked at her, smiling.

“P-Pretty much, yes!” Sumire smiled at him.

“Hmm… I see, I see. That’s a useful talent to have.”

“T-Thank you, Senpai…” She blushed a bit, looking away from Akira. ‘He thinks it’s useful…’ Her head felt like it was spinning. ‘M-Maybe I-I’m not all that useless…’

As Sumire got occupied in her thoughts, the train announcer spoke up, letting them know they reached their destination... Akira grinned at her as he got up, stepping out of the train. Sumire felt her chest hurt less after she got up as well, following Akira out. 

“Um… Follow me, Senpai…” Sumire said, taking the lead as she went to guide Akira.

“So, how long till we’re there, Sumire?” Akira said, looking around as they have been walking for a while.

“J-Just a bit more, Senpai!” Sumire smiled, turning to him. “It takes a bit to walk to my home from the station…”

“Well, I hope you don’t get tired from walking this much. It’s nice to see you smiling like this.” Akira chuckled. “You must be waking up early to make it to the train, right?”

She blushed a bit, looking away for a moment before nodding. “Mhm. Although I’m used to it since I sleep early to make up for it…” Sumire stopped for a moment, pointing at a house in the distance. “That’s the one, Senpai… I think I can manage it right now from here.”

“Well, you do remember what the nurse said, right?” He folded his arms. “I should still accompany you till you’re home, at least.”

“But Senpai…” She sighed. “I-I don’t want to be a burden…”

“What makes you think you are?” Akira smiled at her, catching her attention. “As I said before, I’m not helping you because I have to, I’m helping you because I want to.”

“S-Senpai…” She looked down for a moment, before nodding. “...Okay…” Sumire felt some pain in her chest again as she winced, immediately catching Akira’s attention. 

“That’s more reason for me to go with you now. Come on, let’s go.” Akira took the lead, with Sumire following behind him again. Not too long after, they arrived in front of her home as Akira rang the bell. Akane was the one who opened the door, looking surprised upon seeing Akira before she quickly smiled. 

“Ah, you must be Sumire’s friend!”

“Yup, I am.” He smiled back. “Sumire had a bit of an accident today-”

“Oh my gosh!” Akane turned to Sumire. “Are you alright, Sumire?”

“I-I’m fine, mom…” She blushed a bit. “The nurse said I should be fine tomorrow… but she had Akira-senpai walk with me-”

Akane leaned forward and kissed Sumire on her forehead. Sumire blushed further, unable to look at anyone else. Akane giggled at her reaction, and turned to Akira. “Sooo…. I heard you saved my little princess from trouble? Did you steal her heart like that?”

“M-Mom!” Sumire covered her face with her hands, to which Akane just laughed. 

Akira just smiled a bit, looking at Akane. “I-It’s not like that-” 

“I’m only joking! Come on in, you two!” Akane moved over to give them space. Sumire walked in, but Akira stayed outside. 

“Ah, thank you for the offer, but… I gotta go for now.” Akira adjusted his glasses. “Maybe next time?”

“Aww… That’s a shame… But I understand!” Akane smiled at him. “Thank you, umm-”

“Akira Kurusu.” Akira respectively bowed. “It’s nice to meet you, Yoshizawa-san.”

“You can call me Akane, Akira-kun! You don’t have to use honorifics with our family!”

“M-Mom…?” Sumire’s eyes widened upon hearing her mother’s words.

“You’re also welcome here anytime, Akira-kun! I hope you can come to visit later, since we’d like to get to know you better!”

Akira nodded. “I really gotta get going for now.” He chuckled. “But I’ll try to make time for it.” He started walking away from home, waving at Sumire and Akane as both of them waved back. 

Akane closed the door with a wide smile. Sumire went to sit on a nearby couch after dropping her bag nearby, wincing again in pain.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Akane sat right next to her, lightly rubbing her back.

“I-I got hit during the volleyball rally a bit too hard…” She breathed out. “I… I think I fainted a-and… Akira-senpai had to carry me…”

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that, my little princess.” She went to pat Sumire’s hair. “But it’s good Akira-kun was there for you! How are you feeling?”

“It still hurts a bit…” She held her chest. “B-But I think I’ll be fine…”

Akane nodded. “Your Dad got busy with work so he couldn’t arrive earlier. You can rest up in your room, okay?”

“O-Okay… Thank you, mom…” Sumire got up from the couch and went to pick her bag, before her mom stopped her. “I’ll take care of it for you, sweetie.”

“Mom…” Sumire sighed, nodding as she made her way upstairs and to her room. She felt herself collapse onto her bed the moment she entered her room. ‘Why does everyone want to help me…? Why can’t I do anything by myself…? I feel so pathetic… K-Kasumi wouldn’t have needed help… Kasumi…’ Sumire closed her eyes for a moment. ‘...N-No, I’ll just do something else to distract myself…’ Sumire got up from the bed and headed to her desk to sit down on the chair, the pain being much less this time. There wasn’t anything standing around on her desk except her old Laptop. ‘Huh… It must’ve been a while…’ Sumire went to turn on the laptop, noticing that she had a few games installed, some of which she used to play with Kasumi. She almost teared up as memories came to her again. ‘N-No… I’ll just do something else…’ 

She turned off her laptop and walked outside of her room. She noticed her bag in front of her door that her mom must’ve brought. ‘Oh, right… I still got homework…’ Sumire picked her bag again and went back to her room. After pulling her notes as well as books from her bag, she got to work. This time, she had to do her homework about physics. ‘This is going to be a nightmare…’ Sumire put her hands on her face, sighing as she started working on the questions while looking at the small notes she took in class.

* * *

“Sumire! Dinner’s ready!” Akane yelled out.

“Huh…? Oh, I’m coming in a bit, Mom!” Sumire looked back at her homework. Despite the trouble she faced, she finished most of it, satisfied to see it as a good opportunity for her to study. ‘I had no idea how the time just went by... ‘ Sumire got up from her chair and left her room to go downstairs. She went to sit next to her Dad, as usual. 

He immediately put his hand on her shoulder upon her sitting down and looked at her. “Sumire, how are you feeling? I heard what happened.”

“Y-Yeah, I’m much better now… I think the pain is gone now. I-I didn’t even notice it, actually…” She awkwardly smiled at her father. There was curry for dinner this time, but it looked like it’d be more than filling as the plates were packed full of it. Sumire started eating slowly, before her mom spoke up. 

“By the way, Sumire? Your Coach said that you’re on a temporary break from Gymnastics.”

“O-Oh, yeah… I couldn’t really focus, so she wanted me to focus my attention elsewhere for now…”

“I understand, Sweetie. Take your time, okay?”

“Mhm. Your well being is more important.” Shinichi adjusted his glasses and went back to eating. Sumire blushed a bit and nodded. She went back to devouring her food, surprising her parents once again at the pace she was eating.

“By the way, you should’ve seen Akira-kun today, Shinichi!” Akane giggled. “He seemed like a really good person!”

“Akira-kun? Is he Sumire’s friend?” 

“Yup! You should meet him too! I could see why our little princess has taken a liking to him!”

Sumire blushed a bit at her mom’s remark, couching a bit. She slowed down the pace she was eating as both of them turned to her. She looked up to notice both of them smiling at her. “W-What…?”

“Oh, nothing sweetie. We’re just happy for you, that’s all!” Akane went to pinch Sumire’s cheek, which caused Sumire to blush further. 

“Y-You are…? I-I see…”

“Now I really want to meet this ‘Akira-kun’ too.”

“I-I could go ask him about it for the weekend, or something…” Sumire fidgeted with her fingers.

“That’d be wonderful!” Akane smiled at Sumire.

“Mhm.” Shinichi scratched his head. “By the way, I was planning on arranging a meeting with a counsellor, Dr. Maruki I think was his name, for you, but… Maybe you don’t really need it since you seem to be really happy. Do you still want to visit him?”

“O-Oh… U-Um… I… I-I don’t think so, Dad…” Sumire looked down at the table. “I-I mean, sometimes I-I do feel….” She didn’t finish the sentence as both of the parent’s expressions changed. “...B-But! A-Akira-senpai has been looking out f-for me! A-And I’ve been feeling happy whenever I spent time with him…”

“You two should start dating then already!” Akane shouted, to which Shinichi laughed.

“W-What…!? M-Mom… N-Not this again!” Sumire blushed further. “I-I-I-I just like spending time with h-him! T-That doesn’t m-mean-”

“I was just teasing you, sweetie. But your reaction tells me that you DO feel something towards him!”

“N-No! I-I really d-don’t…!” Sumire covered her face with her hands, unable to look at her parents.

“It’s okay, Sumire.” Shinichi patted her head. “If he really makes you this happy, we’re willing to support you.”

“Wha-”

“Yup! We’ll support your decision either way, sweetie!” Akane said, cutting Sumire short.

“I…” Sumire felt like she was going to faint for a moment, taking deep breaths as both of her parents laughed and decided to give her some space. It took her a minute before her embarrassment finally died down, where she continued to eat. She was done eating her first plate and already went to the second plate as well. 

“By the way, how’s school going, sweetie?” Akane asked.

“It’s… Okay, I think… Sometimes it’s hard to focus on some lessons, but I’m trying my best…” Sumire took another bite of her food.

“Try not to worry too much about it and study if you can, Sumire.” Her Dad looked at her with a smile. “Maybe ask for help from others if you’re struggling, like your friend Akira.”

“Okay, Dad…” Sumire continued eating, but she noticed how her mom was smiling at her after she looked up. “M-Mom! D-Don’t you dare-”

“You two should TOTALLY go study together! It’d be a good opportunity to get close to him too!”

“Mom…!” Sumire blushed like a strawberry, unable to look at either of them. “Y-You’re so mean!”

Akane laughed at her reaction and Shinichi joined in a few seconds later. Sumire couldn’t handle it anymore, immediately rushing to her room and slamming her door shut before plummeting herself onto her bed. ‘I-I’m not into him….’ Sumire covered her eyes in bed, still faintly hearing their laughter. ‘But… They also looked so happy with me too… What do I do….?’ Sumire felt her eyes getting heavier as she kept thinking on her question, before her phone buzzed. She took out her phone to see a message from Akira himself.

_ Hey, how are you doing? Are you feeling any better? _

‘What timing….’ Sumire sighed out loud before she started typing.

_ I’m okay. I’m just trying to survive my parents. _

_ Is it similar to earlier in the day where your mom teased me with you? _

_ I’m so sorry, Senpai! I keep telling them, but they still keep teasing me… _

_ That sounds fun. _

Sumire narrowed her eyes as she rapidly typed.

_ Senpai! _

_ Relax, relax! I’m just kidding.  _

_ Anyway, see you tomorrow? _

_ Okay… See you tomorrow, Senpai! _

She felt herself getting drowsy as she closed her phone with a smile. ‘Oh, Senpai… What would I have done without you?’ 

* * *

“Oh, Senpai!” Sumire walked over to Akira in the cafeteria, sitting opposite of him with a warm smile. “I figured I’d find you here!”

“Hey.” Akira smiled back at her. “How are you?”

“I-I’m good! I’m not feeling any pain at all at the moment, though…” Sumire frowned. “...I hope we don’t run into him again…”

“Forget about him for now. Let’s just focus on eating our food, alright? Do you have your own?”

“Oh, y-yeah! I do!” She put her bag on the table, pulling out a lunch box with chopsticks on the table. “Um… If you want, I can a-also share my food with you too, S-Senpai…” 

“Nah, I’m good.” He chuckled. “Besides, I think you need it more than me. You do burn what you eat, right? Because of Gymnastics?”

“Right… About that…” She puffed. “...Coach told me to take a break from it, because I was performing badly a-and she told me to find ‘myself’... I t-think I know what she means, but…”

“But?”

“...I-I just don’t really know, Senpai… I-I mean, I want to tell you, but…”

“Sumire, if you want to talk to me about it, you can. I’m always here to listen.” Akira adjusted his glasses. “Although I may take a while to respond back when I’m busy.”

She looked up at him, giggling a bit. “Right, thank you, Senpai! B-But…” She looked down on the table again. “...I’ll tell you about it later, w-when I f-feel ready…”

He nodded. “I understand. In the meantime, try to cheer up.” He went back to eating his food. Sumire nodded as well and went back to eating her lunch as well. ‘Why do I feel like today is going to be a bit of a long day…?’

Akira’s phone suddenly buzzed, catching both of their attention as he pulled off his phone to look at the notification. His eyes furrowed a tiny bit as he looked at the message.

“What is it, Senpai?”

“It’s Ryuji. He wants us to meet up after school.” 

“Oh… What for?”

“He wants to talk about Kamoshida. He asked me to bring you along too, due to what happened.”

Sumire looked down on the table for a moment, her legs shaking a tiny bit. ‘N-No… I-I have to be brave….’ Sumire nodded, sweat falling from her forehead to her cheeks.

“Sumire?” Akira looked at her, his eyes wide.

“I-I’ll be fine, S-Senpai… J-Just give me a second…” She took a deep breath, before nodding at him again. “Okay… That’s fine by me… Um… S-See you later, Senpai…”

“....Alright, see you Sumire. Take care, alright?”

“M-Mhm…” Sumire got up from her seat and put her lunchbox. She left the cafeteria, shakily waving at Akira at the exit as she made her way to her classroom. ‘Why… Why am I so scared…?’ As Sumire was walking to her class, she heard a passing conversation with a familiar voice nearby.

“M-Mr. Kamoshida… Y-You can’t….”

“Oh, I believe I can. Or do you want to give up your chances on becoming successful entirely?”

There was a moment of silence before he spoke up again.

“Then get out of my sight and tell Shiho to meet me!”

Sumire heard walking footsteps as she let out a small “Eep!” and immediately rushed to her classroom as fast as her legs would allow, catching some attention from people as she ran.

“Hey, isn’t that the Honours student?”

“Ugh, what did she do this time? She’s running like how a criminal would!”

“Maybe she pissed off Kamoshida or something… I heard how she reacted to Kamoshida before.”

‘None of them know a thing… They’re all so… Stupid!” Sumire thought to herself, burrowing her head on her desk as she waited for the bell to ring. She tried to drown out the voices as best as she could in her mind as the students kept talking and talking.

The final bell rang as Sumire finished her notes and put her belongings back into her bag. Her phone buzzed as she looked at her phone to see a message from Akira.

_ Let’s walk out together. I’ll come down to your class. Which one is it? _

_ 1-A, Senpai. _

‘Right… I just remembered…’ Sumire sighed, waiting patiently for Akira to arrive outside of her classroom. A few moments later, he showed up as he smiled at her. 

“Come on, Ryuji’s waiting.” 

“Okay…”

Both of them headed through the direction of the school practice. They stopped quickly at the exit when they noticed a student standing right in front of them. She was staring at her phone, part of her hair covering her face. 

“U-Um…” Sumire spoke up, looking at the girl.

“...What?” She looked up, staring at both of them before she put her phone away. “Oh, I’m in the way, aren’t I? Sorry…”

“...Are you hurt?” Akira asked, as the bruise on her face was clearly visible. 

‘I hope it wasn’t Kamoshida…’ Sumire thought to herself.

“Um… well…” The girl glanced around rapidly before looking at them again. “Hm, you two don’t look familiar…” She placed her attention on Akira. “Are you that transfer student,” then switched over to Sumire. “and the Honours student?”

Sumire and Akira looked at each other for a moment. Sumire nodded at him and Akira turned to the girl again. “Yes, we are.”

The girl looked down for a moment, holding her arm before looking up to them. “Um… This might not be any of my business, but don’t let the rumours get to you both, okay?”

“...Why do you say that?” Akira asked, scratching his head.

“Well, I’ve helped with a similar situation before…” She closed her eyes for a moment. “...My best friend is often misunderstood too, because of her looks… Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to drag on like that…”

“I-It’s okay! R-Really!” Sumire suddenly said, catching the girl’s attention for a brief moment.

“Yeah, you’re fine. No worries.” Akira said.

“Anyway… I have to go to practice. I’ll see you two around.” The girl went to walk away as Sumire and Akira looked at each other. 

“...The practice…” Sumire mumbled out. “...It’s probably because of Kamoshida…” Sumire began to shake again, stopping when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“If there are others around, she’ll be okay. We should really get moving though... We made Ryuji wait long enough as it is.”

“R-Right…” She breathed out. “Let’s go…” 

Akira opened the door in front of them for Sumire as she walked outside. Akira retook the lead and led them both to Ryuji’s location. Ryuji was standing in front of a vending machine, rapidly tapping the ground with his foot as they arrived at the place.

“Dammit, what the hell…” Ryuji sighed.

“...I’m guessing you didn’t really find anyone, then?” Akira asked.

“Is that what it looks like…?” Ryuji looked down at the ground for a moment before suddenly slamming his fist against the vending machine, causing Sumire to yelp in surprise.

“Oh, sorry Yoshizawa... But… I’m just pissed! All of ‘em kept sayin’ the same shit Mishima was talkin’ about! Kamoshida had to have told ‘em something!” He looked up at Akira. “At this rate... looks like we’ll have to go to him directly.”

“U-Um…” Sumire suddenly spoke up, getting both of their attention. “What is… this about, exactly?”

“Oh, right. We didn’t catch you up to speed.” Ryuji scratched his head. “We know for a fact that Kamoshida is abusin’ the students but we can’t get them to admit it!”

“Oh… Yeah, we saw someone like that while walking here too…” Sumire sighed. “How can he get away with this…?”

“It’s because of this shitty school.” Akira blurted out. “They’re letting him do whatever he wants. I say we should…” He paused for a moment, thinking of what they can do.

“You got anything?” Ryuji asked.

“...Let’s punish the king.” Akira adjusted his glasses.

“...The King? You mean the other world’s Kamoshida?”

“W-Wait, are you two talking about that… time where we ended up in…”

“Yeah. We decided to go in there again. I didn’t want you to come along due to how scared you were of the place.” He scratched his head. “We ran into Morgana again and long story short, Ryuji also awakened to a Persona.

“Oh, I see…” Sumire was thankful she didn’t go with them. “B-But, would you two be able to handle it? I-I mean, I-I’d love to help, bu-”

“I wouldn’t let you come along, Sumire.” Akira cut her short. “It’s too dangerous either way.”

“I-I understand, Senpai…” She slowly nodded, looking down. ‘...I-I wish I could’ve helped… I feel useless again…’

“Well, yeah… But… Is there a meaning to-”

“I finally found you...” A voice cut Ryuji short.

The three looked around, trying to find where the voice came from before Ryuji spoke up. “Did you two say something?”

Both of them shook their head before a cat suddenly jumped on the table, surprising the three of them as they looked at the cat, before it… started talking. “Don’t think you can get away with not paying me back for helping you.”

“That voice… Is that you Morgana!?” Ryuji asked.

“How dare you, up and leaving me the other day!” Morgana said.

“T-The cat’s talking!?” Sumire yelled out, still in shock.

“I am NOT a cat!” The cat suddenly blurted out, causing Sumire to squeal. “Oh, sorry milady. This is just what happened when I came to this world.” He looked at Akira. “It was a lot of trouble finding you two.”

“Wait… You came to our world!?” Ryuji gasped. “Does that mean you’ve got a phone!?”

“Huh? A phone…?” Sumire asked, confusedly.

“It is basically how you can enter the metaverse, milady.” Morgana looked at Sumire. “You don’t need one at my level. I did get pretty lost making my escape though…” Morgana started licking himself, somewhat shocking the trio.

“That aside, why can you talk!? You’re a cat!” Ryuji yelled.

“How should I know!?” Morgana scratched the back of his ear with his leg.

“You hearin’ this too!?” Ryuji looked at Akira.

“...Meow?” Akira said, grinning at Ryuji to which Sumire just rolled her eyes.

“This is no time to be jokin’ around!” Ryuji stomped the ground.

“You guys are having a rough time with this, hm?” Morgana licked his paw. “I heard you mention something about witnesses.”

“Oh, shuddup.” Ryuji glared at the cat.

“You know… I could tell you a thing or two about what to do about Kamoshida.” He turned to Akira. “You were pretty close a moment ago.”

“God, that condescendin’ attitude! This thing’s gotta be Morgana!”

“...You were still doubting me!?”

“W-Wait, quiet down!” Sumire called to them, as she looked behind to see some teachers passing by.

“Do we really have to be looking for a cat in a busy time like this?”

“I just heard a meow somewhere near here. Didn’t you hear it?”

“Make sure you check every nook and cranny around.”

Both of the teachers walked around as Sumire looked at the others with wide eyes.

“...Meow? Does that mean only three of us can understand what you’re sayin’?” Ryuji scratched his head.

“...Looks like it.” Morgana licked his paw again.

“What the hell’s goin’ on…? Anyways, what you were talkin’ about earlier… Is it for real?”

“You’re quite the skepticsceptic for being an idiot.” Morgana said, looking down.

“U-Um… Morgana-san, t-there’s no need to be so rude…”

“Right, sorry milady.” Morgana looked up at her, before turning to Ryuji again. Ryuji just sighed, shaking his head. 

“Hey, tell us more.” He looked around for a moment. “...Then again, this probably ain’t the best place…” Ryuji suddenly grabbed Morgana by his collar as the cat let out a meow, looking at Akira. “Here, stick it in your bag for now! It should be small enough to fit!”

Sumire giggled a bit at how the cat tried to break free. She shouldn’t have, but… something about it was just funny for her.

“Hey! There’s nothing funny about this! How dare you treat me like--”

Akira grinned at the cat for a moment as he gently went to hold the cat by his collar again. He opened up his bag and put the cat in there and closed it before Morgana had a chance to escape. Sumire was still smiling at the way it was going. 

‘This is so silly…’

“Oh, you’re actually smiling, huh?” Akira looked at Sumire with a smile, which caused Sumire to blush a bit. “Anyway, let’s get going.”

Akira took the lead as Sumire and Ryuji followed him to the rooftop. Thankfully, there weren’t too many people around to notice the three of them walking together. 

‘I wonder what’s Ryuji-senpai’s story, though…’ Sumire thought to herself, as they finally arrived at the rooftop. Akira opened up his bag and threw the bag to the ground. A moment later, Morgana finally came out of the bag. 

“S-Senpai, y-you didn’t have to be so rough!” Sumire said, shocked to which Akira just chuckled.

“At least the lady has some common sense!” Morgana yelled.

“Enough of that!” Ryuji leaned forward to Morgana. “You said you know how we can do something about Kamoshida, right?”

Morgana nodded. “It has something to do with what this guy was talking about earlier. You’ll need to attack his castle.”

“...What do you mean?” Ryuji scratched his head.

“That castle is how Kamoshida views the school.”

“Oh… so it’s in his i-image?” Sumire asked.

“Correct, milady. He doesn’t realise what happens in there, but it’s deeply connected to the depths of his heart.” Morgana licked his arm for a moment. “Thus, if the castle disappears, it would naturally impact the real Kamoshida.”

“...What’d happen?” Ryuji asked, folding his arms.

“A palace is a manifestation of one’s distorted desires. So, if that castle were no more…”

“His desires would go too.” Akira said.

“A-And he’d probably be honest…” Sumire murmured.

“Precisely!” Morgana smiled at them. “You two sure pick up things fast!”

“For real!? H-He’s gonna turn good!?” Ryuji looked down on the ground for a moment. “But… is that really gettin’ back at him?”

“Erasing a palace essentially means forcing the owner to have a change of heart. However, even though their warped wants disappear, the crimes they committed remain.” Morgana closed his eyes, grinning. “Kamoshida will become unable to bear the weight of those crimes, and he’ll confess them himself!”

“You for real!? That’s possible!?” Ryuji yelled out.

“T-That’s amazing!” Sumire said, smiling

“And since the Palace will no longer exist, he’ll forget what we did there as well. Not only we’ll be able to bring Kamoshida down, but there won’t even be a trace of our involvement.”

“That really is amazing! You are one amazing cat!” Ryuji said, chuckling.

“True, except for the cat part!”

“M-Morgana-san, you do act like a cat though…” Before Sumire could even finish her sentence, Morgana gave her a cold stare that immediately silenced her, starting to feel sweat form on her face.

“Hey, take it easy. She’s a lady, cat.” Akira said, adjusting his glasses.

“R-Right…” Morgana puffed.

“Anyway… how do we get rid of it?” Ryuji asked, smiling.

“By stealing the Treasure held within.”

“Stealing…?” Ryuji asked, looking confused.

“I’ll tell you more about it once you agree to go ahead with this. It’s my most valuable, secret plan, after all.” Morgana licked his paw first, then wiped his head with it. “If you want to help me out, I’ll gladly teach you. What’s your call?”

The three of them looked at each other for a moment, before Sumire first spoke up. “Um… Morgana-san, I won’t be able to help because I don’t have a Persona… B-But is there anything else I can do…?” 

“I’m afraid not, milady. Just stay out of trouble for your own sake.” 

“Oh…” Sumire hung her head low. ‘There’s really nothing I can do, huh…’

“Well, our luck’s runnin’ dry lookin’ for witnesses. Guess we have no choice but to go along…”

“...I guess so.” Akira went to place his hand on Sumire’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, alright? We’ll be fine.”

Sumire only nodded in response as she looked up at him before Morgana spoke up again. 

“...Good. Oh, right. There’s one more thing I should tell you. If we erase a palace, there’s no doubt that the person’s distorted desires will be erased as well.” Morgana scratched the back of his ear. “...But desires are what we all need in order to survive. The will to sleep, eat, fall in love-- those sorts of things.”

‘Fall in love, huh…’ Sumire thought to herself, before shaking her head quickly. “S-So… Y-You mean, there’s a risk…”

“Correct once again, milady. If all of those yearnings were to vanish, they’d be no different than someone who has shut down entirely.” He paused for a moment, glancing between them. “...They may even die if they’re not given proper care. So…”

“They might die!?” Ryuji yelled.

“Will you listen to everything I have to say first?” Morgana narrowed his eyes.

“Would their death be our fault?” Ryuji asked, his eyes wide.

“Aren’t you determined enough to face those kinds of risks?” 

Sumire went silent for a moment, as she looked up at Akira. Akira was looking back at her, before Ryuji caught their attention. 

“...Hey, What do you two think?”

“W-Well, I’d rather not see someone d-die, b-but…” Sumire adjusted her hair. “Um… Maybe we should…”

“Yeah, I’m interested in it.” Akira said.

“For real!?” Ryuji was shocked.

“Sheesh… I come all this way, and this is what I get. It’s not like anyone will ever find out.”

“That’s not the point!” Ryuji angrily stomped the ground. “If we just go around secretly doin’ whatever we want, we’d be no better than that effin’ Kamoshida…”

“Ugh… Isn’t this your only option?” Morgana shook his head. “I’ll come back later. Make sure you’ve made your decision by then.” Morgana took off to the open door as he ran out. The three of them looked at each other again.

“Man… we’re all gettin’ worked up for nothin’! Dammit!” Ryuji kicked the ground. “I’ll try and see if I can figure out another way…”

“Ryuji-senpai…” Sumire said in a low voice, looking at him.

“You don’t have to push yourself too hard, man.” Akira adjusted his glasses.

“I know… but I still need to figure this out! Anyway… let’s just get out of here, you two. Come on…” Ryuji went for the door, with Akira and Sumire following him from behind.

‘...Maybe it doesn’t matter if he died though, after all the things he did to me… and probably others… Wait, what am I saying!?’ Sumire lightly pinched her cheek as the trio made their way to the school gate. Ryuji went his separate way as both Akira and Sumire made their way to Shibuya together. Although Akira offered to walk together with her, she respectfully declined and both of them went their separate ways with a final goodbye for the day.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the wait! I hope you liked the chapter, as it took me a while to write. In addition to that, it also took a while to beta read!
> 
> In either case, huge thank you to chriscruise03 for beta reading for me once again! He has been really helpful!


	6. Day of Misery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sumire's day starts off more roughly than usual, as the tension in school quickly rises...

“Settle down, class! Today, we’ll be talking about force and mass. Make sure to take notes cause we’ll be going in-depth about it.”

Sumire put out her books and notebooks on her table. She opened up her notebook, writing down notes quickly and understandably as the teacher kept on talking. The lecture went on for a bit, before a boy got up from his seat and glanced out of the classroom.

“Hey, look! What is that!?”

“Please sit down. This is a classroom.” The teacher sternly told the boy. Sumire looked out of the window, out of curiosity to see what it was about. More people got up from their seats shortly after.

“I think she’s going to jump!”

Sumire’s eyes widened upon hearing that. ‘W-What….’ with shaky hands, she got up from her seat as well. She couldn’t hear anything, and by the time she walked over to the window, her classmates were already rushing out of the classroom. They bumped into her, causing her to almost fall head first onto a desk. She nervously adjusted her glasses, walking out of the classroom to stare out the window.

‘W-Wait.. I-Is that…’ 

Sumire stared at what looked to be the body of the girl she just met yesterday. She felt herself freeze. ‘W-Why.. I-It can’t be...’ The ensuing chaos and screaming amongst the hallways snapped Sumire back to her senses, rushing out of the classroom and through the crowd of people, not caring enough to apologise to them.

Sumire felt her entire heart shatter upon seeing the girl from yesterday lying motionless on the ground. Her leg was bent in an unnatural way and her shoulders appeared to be dislocated. In addition to that, her head seemingly had a split at the top. ‘N-No…’ Sumire felt herself slightly tear up. Everything around her went black once more, the scenery around her changing to a Mainstreet road as it was raining... Instead of that girl from yesterday, it was instead Kasumi herself lying down on the floor, blood coming out of her.

‘K-Kasumi... N-No…!’

She backed away from the scene, unable to stop her legs from trembling. Before long, she felt a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her trance.

“Sumire?”

“Yoshizawa? Are you okay?

“A-Akira-senpai… Ryuji-senpai…!” She turned around to face them, tears falling down her eyes onto her cheeks, though she felt her aching heart ease off a bit upon seeing Akira. ‘I-I can’t do this anymore..’ Sumire aimed her head down, still crying.

“...We’ll talk later, okay?” Akira patted her shoulder as she gazed up at him again, nodding. She scanned her surroundings, noticing people were taking pictures with their phones. ‘At a time like this…?’ 

“What the hell’s wrong with those people!?” Ryuji shouted as he also looked around him.

“I wish I knew..” Akira sighed in annoyance, catching the girl gasping for air.

“We need someone to go with her, are there any teachers around?” A paramedic spoke up, gazing at the crowd.

“I-I’m not in charge of her class, though..” A teacher replied.

“W-We should leave this to Principal Kobayakawa…”

Sumire felt someone angrily push her aside, almost falling to the ground once again before Akira managed to catch her and bring her onto her feet. She glanced up to see who it was, noting that she was a titanium-blonde haired girl.

“I’ll go!” The girl yelled out.

“Please hurry!” The paramedic answered back.

The girl immediately rushed over next to the motionless girl, crouching down and staring at her with teary eyes. “S-Shiho… Why…?”

Shiho barely moved her head up to look at the titanium-blonde haired girl. “Ann…?” She barely muttered. “I’m sorry… I… I can’t take this... anymore…”

“Shiho…?” Ann weakly said out, bringing her head down to hear what Shiho had to say. She immediately recoiled back shortly after. “...Huh? Kamoshida…!?” 

Shiho closed her eyes as her head fell back on the stretcher.

“No… Shiho!?” Ann brought her head down, crying on her friend. 

Sumire felt the scenery around her change for a brief moment, feeling a slight rush of pain in her head, causing her to wince. She looked in the direction of the ambulance as it left the school grounds.

“Volleyball team…” Ryuji muttered, in a low voice.

Sumire glanced at her two upperclassmen, her mind having rapid thoughts from what she witnessed. “She said Kamoshida…” Sumire puffed. Shortly after, the three of them noticed a boy running.

“That guy… Hey, wasn’t Mishima acting weird?” Ryuji asked Akira.

“Definitely. He knows something.”.

“U-Um… Who’s Mishima, Senpai…?” 

“Don’t worry about it for now.” Akira told her as calmly as possible.

“We’re gonna make him talk this time. Don’t worry Yoshizawa, just stay put.” Ryuji said as both of them started running in the direction of that boy.

“S-Senpai… D-Don’t leave me here…” Sumire weakly mumbled, as the aching in her heart started to return. 

Akira stopped midway while Ryuji continued to run, prompting him to look back. “Huh? What’s wrong?”

“You go on ahead without me. I’ll catch up.”

“A-Alright… But don’t take long!” And just like that, Ryuji left the area while Akira approached Sumire.

“Hey… what’s wrong?”

“Y-Yes….” She barely muttered, trying to get as much air as she could. “S-Senpai……” Everything around her started turning dark once again. The aching in her heart got too much for her to handle. Before long, she collapsed on the floor.

.

.

.

When Sumire opened her eyes, she found herself floating in an empty black void. ‘W-Where…’ She rapidly looked around in panic. The reality around her started to shift, causing her to lose her balance, falling to the ground. The void was gone, now replaced by what appeared to be a 3 class story tower in front of her that left her in awe. ‘W-Wha…. W-What is this!?’ Sumire lifted herself from the ground and started backing away from the tower slowly, before she felt something stab her in the back--

“NOOOOOOO!” Sumire immediately woke up with a gasp, breathing too quickly as she kept glancing around the room to see where she was. 

Akira was next to her, slightly frightened upon hearing her yell. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Take it easy, Sumire. Lay down.” 

Sumire gazed at him for a moment. Quickly she collapsed on the bed. “S-Senpai…”

“I’m sorry, Sumire, but…” He sighed, adjusting his glasses as he glanced at her. “We’re going to be expelled…” 

“W-Wha…” Sumire’s eyes widened, looking at Akira in disbelief. “S-Senpai... Please tell me this is a bad joke…”

He clenched his fist, unable to meet her eyes. “That bastard is going to expel you just cause you kept defying him. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this, I’m sorry.”

“S-Senpai…!” Her blatant shout caught his attention. “W-We can still fight back against him!” 

“...What do you mean-” Just as the words were leaving his mouth, he realized what she meant. “Oh! You’re right! Morgana was with me early in the morning, too! Let’s go talk to him about it later, okay?”

“O-Okay…” Sumire sighed, wiping the sweat that formed on her head. “I’m sorry, Senpai… I-I wish I could’ve helped you better…” 

“Don’t worry about it. Leave it to us. Besides…” He adjusted his glasses again, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I wanted to talk to you about something else.”

“H-Huh…? W-What is it, Senpai?” 

“Earlier today… you seemed particularly bothered by how Suzui fell, even though we all just met yesterday… ”

“Oh…” Sumire hung her head low. “It’s true, Senpai… S-Something did bother me about it, but… I-I don’t think I can really talk about it…” She closed her eyes. ‘...Or you may hate me too….’

“Whatever it is, don’t forget that you can still trust me, okay?” He smiled at her. “I won’t force you to talk about it, but I’m willing to listen to you if you want.” 

“W-Well…. I….” Sumire pondered for a moment, shortly after looking at him. “...Senpai… Have you heard the rumours about me?”

“I haven’t, but I don’t really care about them either.” He brought his hands together. “Why do you ask?”

“...I-It’s related to the rumours…” Sumire sighed, getting up from the bed she was lying down on.

“Oh, no, no, no! Go lay down, young lady!” The nurse said, startling Sumire.

“M-Ms. Reiki!? I-I wasn’t aware you were h-here!”

“This is the second time you passed out on the way here. At this point, I’m convinced he’s just your boyfriend looking over for you.” She shook her head, to which Sumire blushed and Akira chuckled. 

“W-We’re not dating!” Sumire yelled out, waving her hands in front of her face to hide her growing blush. “A-Anyway, u-umm, I-I don’t want to miss out on my classes..”

“Don’t worry about that.” Akira said, smiling at her. “You just go rest for now.” He pulled out his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. “...Well, looks like I’ll have to go for now. Take care, okay?”

“O-Okay….” She sighed, lying down on the bed. Akira stood up and waved at her before he stepped out of the room, leaving Sumire and Ms. Reiki together. ‘I-I don’t think I could’ve properly walked, now that I think about it... I feel dizzy…’ Sumire thought to herself.

“Do you want me to call your parents?” Ms. Reiki’s question broke Sumire free from her thoughts. “It’ll be good for them to know-.” 

“N-No! I’ll be fine, really! I’m just a little dizzy… Um… W-When can I leave?” Sumire asked, raising her head to glance at her.

“About an hour from now should be fine. You had a bit of a fall from what I’ve noticed when your friend brought you here.” She got up, checking out some cabinets. “But besides that, I didn’t notice anything wrong with you. You apparently just collapsed out of nowhere..”

“Y-Yeah, I-I don’t know what came over me…” 

“Hm…” Ms Reiki pondered for a moment. She finished checking the cabinets, grabbing a towel and running cold water through it. “I’d suggest scheduling an appointment with a doctor when you can. Maybe they can figure it out there, but I can’t really do much here other than this.” She handed Sumire the now damp towel to place on her forehead.

“...I-I understand..” Sumire put her head on her pillow again, followed by the towel on her forehead. ‘...As if a hospital can help me with my problems..’ She closed her eyes, feeling her blood boiling at her head. ‘I hope you suffer like I have, Kamoshida…’ Sumire said, closing her eyes to get some rest.

.

.

.

“...And thus that’s why an object stops gaining speed after a certain while it’s falling. Any questions?”

Everyone in the class just stared at the teacher while Sumire noted down what the teacher was saying. 

“Alright, in that case, you’re dismissed.” The teacher said, heading out of the classroom.

“Geez, what a nerd…”

“Well, maybe she is a nerd... But at least she seems more successful than you.”

“Doesn’t matter! I heard she’ll get expelled soon anyways! Serves her right!”

‘...It’s not that hard to take notes either, but I suppose you’re not clever enough... Although maybe I shouldn’t bother taking notes either...’ Sumire audibly sighed, immediately packing her things into her bag and leaving the classroom. Her phone buzzed for a moment as walked around the hallway. She received a message from Akira.

_Hey, Sumire. Ryuji told me and Morgana to meet at the same place from yesterday. We need to discuss our approach. Can you come as well?_

_I’m on my way, Senpai!_

Putting her phone away, she started walking towards the area they were in yesterday as fast as she could. Thankfully, she didn’t really encounter anyone… problematic on her way to the area. Akira and the others were already there, waiting for her. 

“I-I hope I didn’t take too long..”

“Nope, you arrived shortly after he arrived, milady!” Morgana said, looking at Akira. 

Ryuji sighed, annoyedly tapping his foot before he slammed a vending machine with his fist, causing Sumire to let out an ‘eep!’. 

“Crap, I keep forgetting... Sorry, Yoshizawa.” He took a deep breath. “We can’t waste any time. We gotta hurry up and go to that world and beat the shit out of that asshole!”

“...We’re not beating him up!” Morgana said, sitting up. “We’re simply stealing his distorted desires.” He looked at the others, glancing between them. “Can I assume that you’ve made up your minds about this -- about how he might suffer a mental shutdown?”

“...I have.” Ryuji replied, turning to Morgana. “Someone almost died because of him! I don’t give a rat’s ass what happens to him anymore!”

“What about you?” Morgana said, turning to Akira.

“I agree with it. There’s no other way anymore.”

“What about you, milady?” Morgana turned to Sumire.

“...I’m fine with it... He d-deserves to suffer anyway..” Sumire said, in a low voice to which the others’ shock was apparent, but it didn’t last very long.

“Well… Then it’s settled.” Morgana said, catching their attention.

“By the way…” Ryuji scratched his head. “Is gettin’ rid of a Palace hard? You’ve tried it before, right?”

“...When did I ever say that?” Morgana asked, shaking his head.

“...Eh?” Ryuji gazed at him for a moment, his eyes widened.. “...WHAT!? Were you just pretendin’ to know!?”

“R-Ryuji-senpai, please don’t yell!” Sumire said, sighing.

“...Is it true you’re getting expelled?” A girl spoke up, catching the group’s attention. It was the same girl from the morning, Sumire remembered that her name was Ann based on Suzui’s whisper. “Everyone’s talking about it…”

“...That asshole’s at it again!” Ryuji said, staring down at the ground and angrily tapping his foot for a moment. He glared at Ann. “So you came all this way to tell us that?”

Ann gazed away for a moment, before shaking her head and turning to the group. “If you’re going to deal with Kamoshida… let me in on it too.”

The shock was evident in their faces as they all glanced at Ann. She aimed her head low. “I can’t just sit back and do nothing after what happened to Shiho!”

“...This has nothing to do with you.” Ryuji bluntly said. “Don’t butt your head into this…”

“But it does! Shiho’s my…” Ann weakly said, looking up.

“I said, don’t get in our way!” Ryuji yelled.

Ann seemed like she was going to tear up for a moment as she glanced away.

“I’m sorry, but he’s right. You can’t be involved.” Akira said, adjusting her glasses.

“Y-Yeah, or you may end up like us..” Sumire said, feeling some pain in her chest.

Ann didn’t say anything else to the group, and immediately ran away. The four of them looked at each other for a moment before Morgana spoke up. “...That was harsh.”

“We can’t take her somewhere like that… I mean, we can’t even risk bringing Yoshizawa along either.”

“M-Mhm…” Sumire nodded, staring down. ‘I-I wish I could’ve come along..’ 

“I hope she doesn’t do anything too crazy.” Morgana said, gazing at the ground. “Women can be much bolder than men at times.”

‘Huh…’ Sumire shook her head. “A-Anyway... W-We don’t have much time, right?”

“Yeah.” Ryuji said. “We just gotta hurry up and deal with Kamoshida. We should go already.”

“Oh, well…” Sumire glanced up at them, smiling a bit. “...Please, be careful you three... And come back safely, okay?”

“We will. Sit tight, Sumire. I’ll let you know how it goes.” Akira sent her a comforting smile.

“Yeah, trust us Yoshizawa! We got this.”

“You should head to home, milady.

“A-Alright…” Sumire nodded at them. 

The group made their way to the school gates and the three of them walked to an alleyway while Sumire headed in a separate direction. Just as she was ready to head home, however, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She got scared as she looked over her shoulder, noticing that it was none other than Ann herself. 

“Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Y-Yes? W-What is it?” Sumire said, her eyes wide. 

“I noticed you went in a separate direction from them… Why?” Ann said, tapping her foot.

“Um... Uh… I-I can’t tell you…” Sumire said, slowly backing away from Ann. But Ann quickly held Sumire’s arm, causing her to yelp in surprise.

“Listen… I’m sorry for being rough with you earlier in the morning... But this is important to me... What are they going to do?”

“I…” Sumire felt some aching again in her heart for a moment, before she looked up at her. “P-Please don’t… y-you’d be risking your life, l-let them-”

“...What? They are going to risk their lives?” Ann let go of Sumire’s arm. “Where are they?”

“Um... Uh…” Sumire sighed, gazing down.

“Just tell me, please!” Ann angrily said, causing Sumire to wince a bit.

‘I guess I can’t deal with her like this..’ She looked up at Ann again. “...T-They are in that alleyway..”

“Got it, thanks.” Ann said, immediately heading over to there.

“W-Wait!” Sumire yelled out, making Ann stop her in tracks.

“What? What is it?” Ann turned to face her.

“...I-If you are going, then I’m coming with you, just to be sure..” Sumire fidgeted with her fingers. ‘I hope Senpai won’t be too mad at me..’

Ann shrugged and continued to walk to the said alleyway without Sumire. Sumire managed to catch up to her and both of them stopped by nearby, watching the three of them.

“Looks like they’re really going to do something…” Ann said, in a low voice.

“I-It’s a bit dangerous... We really should head back..” Sumire responded.

“They’re doing something on their phone…? A name… School?”

Sumire peeked at the phone Akira held out from a distance, noticing a strange app open on his phone. “M-Mhm, they are... B-but-”

Just then, a feeling of nausea started taking over Sumire. It was similar to how she felt on the first day of the school as reality began warping around her followed by her vision getting distorted. Before long, she found herself at the same castle from before. The others walked up near the entrance, not noticing Sumire and Ann.

“...Huh!? What is this!?” Ann walked up to the group, while Sumire just sighed and walked behind her.

“...T-Takamaki!? Yoshizawa!?”

“That voice… Sakamoto!?” She turned to the other boy next to him. “And… are you Kurusu-kun!?”

“W-Why are you here!?” Ryuji yelled out.

“How should I know!?” Ann replied.

“I-I’m sorry, Ryuji-senpai…” Sumire glanced down. “She insisted on following you guys along when I tried to convince her otherwise-”

“Hey, where are we!?” Ann yelled, cutting Sumire short. “Isn’t this the school!?” She rapidly kept looking around.

“I see.” Morgana said, catching the group’s attention. “Perhaps they were dragged in because of that app thing.” Morgana turned to Akira. “ If multiple people can enter with the person who uses it, it stands to reason it’ll pull anyone nearby.”

“For real?” Ryuji kicked the ground.

“Wait, so THIS is related to Kamoshida!?” Ann asked, glaring at the others.

“A-Anyways, you gotta leave!” Ryuji said.

“No!” Ann stepped forward.

“T-Takamaki-san, please!” Sumire said, walking next to Ann.

“The Shadows are going to find us if you make a scene.” Morgana said, folding his arms.

“No way! It talked!? Oh my god, it’s a monster cat!” Ann said, recoiling a bit.

“Monster…?” Morgana’s eyes widened.

“You better explain what’s going on! I won’t leave until you do!”

“You’re being a liability, Takamaki.” Akira said, pressing a hand against his face.

“What!? Don’t call me a liability! I am not leaving!”

‘....Why are you so stubborn like an idiot…?’ Sumire held her head.

Ryuji sighed, looking at Morgana. “Looks like we gotta force her. But… how’re we supposed to do that?”

“Just take her back to where we came in. That’s how it worked last time, right?” Morgana looked at Ann.

“O-Oh, yeah.” Ryuji turned to Akira. “Can you lend me a hand?”

“Got it.” Akira replied, both of them stared at Ann as Sumire moved out of the way.

“What’re you-”

“We’ll explain after everything’s over!” Ryuji said, cutting Ann short as he walked up to Ann, with Akira following from behind as they started to forcefully move Ann towards the exit.

“H-Hey! A-And just where are you touching!?”

“Whoa, s-sorry, I-I didn’t mean--” Ryuji sighed. “...That’s not important!”

“You guys seriously--” Ann got cut short again as they brought her near the exit of the world. They glanced at each other for a moment, before giving Ann one final push to make her get out as she let out a small scream.

“S-She was really annoying, huh..” Sumire said, sighing.

“Y-Yeah…” Ryuji let out a gasp, walking back to the group. “We better be careful from now on when we use that app…” Ryuji turned to Sumire. “Yoshizawa, you should head back too.”

“I-I will..” She nodded, slowly heading towards the exit.

“Wait, Sumire.” Akira said, stopping her as she turned around to look at him. “Did she force you to come along?”

“W-Well... N-Not exactly, I just…” Sumire looked away. “...I just tried to convince her against following you guys, b-but I couldn’t really stop her..” She stared down at the ground. “I-I’m sorry, Senpai…”

“You have nothing to apologise for, Sumire.” Akira said, walking up to her. “Just make sure she doesn’t do anything crazy, okay?”

“O-Okay, I will Senpai..” She gazed up at him, smiling. “Good luck..” She waved at others and left through the exit as her vision warped once again, this time lasting much more shorter as she found herself in the alleyway. She looked around for Ann, not seeing her. “Takamaki-san…?”

“I’m right here…” Ann said, walking back to the alleyway as she walked up to Sumire, glaring at her. Sumire got scared and started stepping back. “W-Wait! P-Please!” Sweat started forming on Sumire’s head.

“Well, you better explain to me what that was about then!” Ann yelled, stopping in her place as she tapped the ground repeatedly.

“I-It…” Sumire sighed. “I-It’s hard to explain…”

“But it is related to Kamoshida, isn’t it!?” 

Sumire nodded, aiming her head low. “I-It’s not that simple... It’s really dangerous..”

“So tell me how did they get in, then!” 

“I-I don’t know!” Sumire yelled, frowning at her. “Y-You’re being really stubborn! I-If you just listened…”

Ann looked surprised at Sumire’s outburst as she stared at Sumire. Sumire’s eyes widened at what she said, glancing at Ann. “I-I’m sorry! I-I didn’t mean to yell!”

“No, it’s okay...” Ann folded her arms. “Maybe I am being really stubborn… But I need to do this for Shiho. Please, tell me.” Ann said, walking up to her.

“T-Takamaki-san..” She turned her gaze away. “I-I wouldn’t be able to tell you… I was told to make sure you don’t do anything reckless…”

“...Okay, so tell me what’s so dangerous about that place, then. Because I don’t understand.” Ann frowned at Sumire.

“Well, we e-ended up there on the first day of school and barely got back alive, b-because… there were Shadows who wanted to kill us..”

“...Shadows? What do you mean?”

Sumire shook her head. “L-Like I said, it’s hard to explain… Just t-talk to them later, please?”

Ann seemed like she was going to object, but her phone audibly buzzed. She looked up, tapping it a few times. “Hey, what is this app…? Is this how they entered?”

“H-Huh!?” Sumire’s eyes widened. “T-Takamaki-san, please don’t-”

Ann tapped her phone, ignoring Sumire. “Kamoshida… Pervert… School… Castle…” 

The reality around them started warping again, shortly after finding themselves in front of the castle again. 

“N-No…” Sumire tensed up, noticing the others were seemingly long gone.

“I-It’s this place again!” Ann exclaimed with a surprised face. “What’s with this app…?” She gazed at her phone. “I just said the words Sakamoto said and-”

“Takamaki-san… You won’t go back, will you…?” Sumire said, cutting her short.

“Of course not!”

“T-Then, please… J-Just do as I say, okay? I don’t want you to die… ” Sumire started walking towards the castle, shaking a lot as she did so. ‘I-I don’t want to be here…’

“Okay…” Ann said, following her. They stopped in front of some doors. Sumire was still shakily glancing at the gates, but Ann tried to force the doors open, to no avail. “...Huh? It seems like it’s locked… Did the others lock it?”

“I-I don’t think s-so…” Sumire felt her heart aching again, but she tried her best to push through it. “W-We really should go back-”

“I think I heard something at the door.” 

The voice came from inside the castle itself. Immediately, Sumire looked up towards the door, feeling a rush of panic. 

“W-We really gotta go!” 

“N-No!” Ann took a step towards Sumire. “I’m not leaving!”

“F-Fine! T-Then hide! T-This way!” Sumire shouted back, forcefully taking Ann’s hand.

“W-Whoa, hey!?” 

Sumire led Ann to the vent she remembered using from her last escape. ‘M-Maybe the inside is safe…’ Sumire thought to herself, as she arrived at the vent and jumped up to it with ease because of her agility. 

“Takamaki-san, come on!” Sumire offeredher hand, but just then she heard the doors open.

“I-It’s too late! Go on! Save yourself!” Ann said, gazing up at Sumire.

“Takamaki-san…!?” Sumire’s eyes widened, but before long she saw some shadows coming, so she rapidly stepped backwards in the vent, falling down on her back. “Ugh….” Sumire clutched her head.

“Princess!” A voice said, amongst the metal clanging. All Sumire heard from Ann was her screaming, as it sounded like she was being dragged away. ‘N-No… T-Takamaki-san!’ Sumire felt like she was going to lose her mind, rapidly glancing around in the room. ‘I-I gotta find Senpai and the others quickly!’ 

Sumire decided to head for the door but stopped herself quickly while she heard metal clanging. She waited for a bit, soon after all of it had disappeared. She slowly opened the door just enough to take a peek. The area was clear, but she did hear the metal clanging go towards through the door in front of her, so she decided to sneakily proceed. She came across a long hallway leading down a door with statues on the sides of the hallway. There were also various heart decorations on the walls, giving it a creepy appearance. She gazed at it for a moment, hearing the metal clanging down the door.

“...Yoshizawa!?”

“E-Eep!” Sumire jumped from being startled. The voice belonged to none other than Morgana himself as he looked at her. 

“I thought you went back! How did you get in here!?”

“M-Morgana-Senpai! T-There’s no time to explain!” Sumire said, her eyes wide. “T-Takamaki-san got captured! We have to go rescue her!”

“...W-What!?” Just as he finished, they both heard screaming coming down the door as Morgana’s eyes widened. “Alright, come along with me, quickly!” Morgana said, running down the other way as Sumire followed her. They passed through an area which looked like a dinner place, the only exception being that there wasn’t any visible food around and instead there were long swords hung on the walls. Before long, they arrived at a door as Morgana opened it, stepping inside while Sumire stood just at the door.

“H-Huh!? Yoshizawa!?” Ryuji said, staring at her.

“Sumire!? How did you get in here!?” Akira asked.

Morgana shook his head, jumping to catch their attention. “There’s no time to explain! Apparently, Takamaki is here too, and she was captured!”

Akira and Ryuji glanced at each other in shock for a moment, before Sumire broke the silence. “W-We have to go!”

“Sumire, it is best if you come with us too. It might be too risky to leave you alone here.” Akira said, gazing at her to which she nodded.

“Dammit... She’s right. We don’t got time to be taking a break! Come on!” Ryuji said.

“Right, let’s go! I’ll guide you!” Morgana said, stepping out of the room and the others followed behind. “She’s just past that dining room-looking place!”

With a quick pace, all of them followed Morgana towards where Ann was supposed to be when they stopped for a moment at the dining hall. 

“H-Hey! What do you think you are doing!?”

“Shoot! Come on!” Morgana said, continuing to lead the group past the dining room to where he found Sumire. They heard a gasp coming from the door on their right. “This way!” Morgana yelled, leading the group down the creepy-looking hallway when they stopped again upon hearing Ann’s voice. 

“Look, just let me go! Please! I promise I won’t come back here!”

“I’ll take the lead! Come on!” Akira alerted everyone, rushing towards the door. He opened the door and entered the room, stopping quickly and recoiling back just like the others. There were girls in the room that were in their underwear, doing sexual poses. 

‘T-This is... Messed up… I don’t want to imagine what he would have done to me…’ 

“Is that what he thinks of the girls on the volleyball team!?” Ryuji asked, his eyes wide.

“...How much more disgusting can this asshole get?” Akira asked, venom in his voice.

Morgana jumped in his place. “Hey, that’s-!” The group glanced towards the right where he pointed, where Ann was put on a cross. In front of her, there were Shadow guards and one in golden armour. In addition, there was a girl that looked exactly like her and… ‘...K-Kamoshida…’ Sumire took a few steps back, while the other three stepped forward.

“Tch! Just when I was about to start enjoying myself…” Kamoshida frowned, but his frown turned into a smile upon seeing Sumire behind the group. “Oh? It seems like you’ve brought the gymnast this time. You shouldn’t have.” He said, with a smirk.

‘D-Disgusting pervert…!’ Sumire felt her entire body shake, but she couldn’t run away… Not right now.

“W-What’s the deal with this guy!?” Ann yelled, squirming.

“...How many times are you gonna come back?” Kamoshida said, towards the group. He licked his lips while staring at Sumire, which caused her heart to ache again. He turned to Ann. “I bet you’re just like those thieves. You came because you’re pissed at me, huh?” He smirked. “But, ah… I forget that chick’s name, but it’s your fault she jumped, you know.”

“H-Huh…?” Ann said, her eyes wide.

“You were so reluctant to throw yourself onto me that I had her take your place.“ His smirk grew deeper. “But now… I have you here… and soon, I will have that gymnast with me.” 

“I-I hope you burn in hell!” Sumire suddenly yelled out as she let out her frustration, which only caused Kamoshida to laugh as she felt like crying her eyes out.

“You bastard! Leave her out of this!” Ann yelled out before the guard in golden armour stepped closer to her, causing her to gasp.

“No!” Ryuji yelled, leaning forward.

“Take one more step and I’ll kill her on the spot.” Kamoshida said, frowning at them. The other two guards immediately crossed their swords in front of Ann’s neck.

“Ugh… Dammit!” Ryuji leaned backwards, shaking his head.

“Shit…” Akira clenched his fist.

“T-There’s gotta be something we can do!” Morgana jumped in place.

‘...No, I think it’s useless…’ Sumire felt like she was going to fall on her knees.

“Just sit back and enjoy the dismantlement show.” He blushed up a bit, smirking at Ann. “Maybe I’ll start with her clothes! Guard!” Kamoshida turned to the one in the golden armour, gesturing to him.

The girl next to Kamoshida giggled. “You’re such a perv!”

“No! Don’t!” Ann replied, squirming in her place. Unfortunately, it was to no avail as the Shadow in golden armour went in front of her, cutting bits and pieces of her school jacket.

“Takamaki!” Ryuji yelled.

“Is this… my punishment for what happened to Shiho?” Ann said, aiming her head down with a greatly distressed face.

“That’s more like it. You should’ve looked more like this from the start.” Kamoshida smirked again, gesturing the guard to stop.

“S-Shiho… I’m so sorry…” Ann closed her eyes.

“Ann! Don’t give in! Don’t just listen to him!” Akira yelled.

Ann glanced up from the ground and towards Akira. “But… I-It’s all over…”

“No it isn’t! Remember what we talked about yesterday!”

“...Huh?” Ann frowned for a moment, before looking away elsewhere. “...You’re right. Letting this piece of shit toy with me…” Ann started squirming a lot more. “What was I thinking!?”

Kamoshida clenched his fist. “It’s like I always say. Slaves should just behave and--”

“...Shut up!” Ann yelled. “I’ve had enough of this… You’ve pissed me off, you son of a bitch!”

Just then, Ann’s eyes suddenly opened wide, her eyes turning entirely yellow. She started writhing in pain, sweating forming on her face as if she was unable to control herself. She continued for a few moments, seemingly giving up for a moment before… “...I hear you... Carmen.” Ann glared up at Kamoshida as blue flames formed on her face for a moment, before it took the shape of a mask. “You’re right. No more holding back!”

‘W-Wha… Does she have a Persona too…?’

Ann tried to forcefully break through the restraints on her hands. She stopped for a moment as her hands got covered in blue flames for a short moment, before she easily broke through them. 

Ann gave Kamoshida a death stare before ripping off her mask, it hitting the ground followed by being engulfed by the blindingly bright blue flames. Soon after they died down, she was dressed in an entirely new outfit. It consisted of a skin-tight catsuit that revealed a bit of her chest and pink gloves, which was completed by her dark-red thigh-high boots. Her Persona on the other hand, had high heel boots and a heart pattern all over it’s clothing, which complemented the roses on it’s waist. It had what seemed to be a cigar in its mouth and a panther mask, which was finished by what appeared to be two… people that it had on a leash, both of them having a heart shaped triangular object as their faces with more hearts on their eyes.

‘E-Even Takamaki-san has a Persona… .’ Sumire thought to herself, glancing down at the ground as she frowned.

Ann immediately stared at the guard on her right and ran up to it, kicking up its sword to the air. She jumped an incredible height that surprised Sumire, grabbed the sword in the air, and slashed down on the… thing that looked like her. It fell to the ground slowly, turning into a speck of dust that quickly disappeared. 

‘A-Amazing… E-Even Takamaki-san…’ Sumire watched, a slight smile forming upon her face. 

Kamoshida’s jaw dropped upon seeing what she had achieved, immediately taking a few steps back behind the Shadow in golden armour as he started sweating.

“You know what? I’m not some cheap girl you can toy with… you scumbag.” Ann said, standing up as she glared at Kamoshida.

“Bitch…!” Kamoshida replied, his eye twitching.

“You stole everything from Shiho… You destroyed her…” Ann took a few steps towards Kamoshida, dropping the sword she was holding as others took their place next to her, besides Sumire. 

‘Everyone else is more useful than me..’ Sumire took a few steps back. She glanced between the group. ‘They all look ready to fight…’ 

“Now it’s your turn!” Ann pointed at Kamoshida. “I will rob you of everything!”

“How dare you! Enough of your insolence!” The Shadow in golden armour said.

The three shadows before them staggered in their place for a moment. They got down to the ground as a black puddle that spun within itself. Before long, a single giant… Shadow that was sitting on a toilet came out. 

‘W-Why is that one sitting on a toilet!?’ Sumire felt creeped out.

“No, I’ve had enough of you.” Ann clenched her fist. “No one’s gonna stop me now!” Ann held the ground with one hand as she stood firmly towards the Shadows. “Let’s go, Carmen!”

Ann’s Persona raised the person on a leash, shooting a fireball out of it that headed for the one on the toilet. It fell to the ground with it on the toilet for a moment.

“On me!” Ann yelled out, rushing at the Shadow with her whip. The others followed behind her, dashing and cutting through the shadow, but it barely seemed to affect it as it shrugged it off, flying up in the air again.

**“** Arsène! **”** Akira yelled out, ripping off his mask. The Persona flew up to the one on the toilet, swiping its heel at its face. Sumire felt like she heard a cracking sound upon the attack connecting, causing the Shadow to violently crash to the ground. ‘A-Akira-senpai is amazing…’

“Captain Kidd! Zio!” Ryuji called to his Persona, also ripping off his mask. His Persona appeared behind him, aiming at the Shadow with its cannon arm before firing off a bolt of lightning. It seemed to cause the Shadow to wince, but it didn’t really have a lasting effect.

“Zorro! Garu!” Morgana crouched down on the ground as his Persona appeared. It swung its sword for a quick moment, seemingly gathering air before sending it in the shape of a ball towards the Shadow. The Shadow shrugged off its attack.

‘W-Why are their attacks useless…!?’ Sumire started sweating a bit, holding her hands together in panic.

“Is that all? Pathetic!” The Shadow yelled out, flying up on its toilet again. It started spinning around. It released a vast wind ball towards the group. Everybody in the group seemed pretty hurt from the attack except for Morgana, who took the attack directly without a scratch. Ryuji on the other hand, fell to the ground, letting out a painful scream. 

‘N-No! Ryuji-senpai! D-Don’t die!’ Sumire desperately wanted to move in to help them, but her body wouldn’t let her move.

Using this as a chance, the Shadow immediately headed for Morgana by flying towards him. It rammed Morgana away near Sumire. 

“M-Morgana-senpai!” Sumire said, her eyes wide as she went to help him get up from the ground. 

“Thanks, Yoshizawa…” Morgana said, falling back in line.

“I had enough of you!” Ann yelled out as blue flames appeared in her hand for a moment, before it took the shape of a whip. 

‘A-A whip!?’ Sumire stared at the ‘weapon’ for a moment, before Ann attacked the Shadow with her Persona. 

The fireball caused the shadow to stagger as it fell to the ground, still sitting on its toilet. Ann used her whip to hit the weakened Shadow as hard as she could on its face, causing it to fall to the ground without its toilet.

“To think… There would be a woman… who could stand up to King Kamoshida…” The Shadow said, out of breath.

Ann adjusted her hair, looking at the Shadow. “Pff, outside of school, that guy’s nothing but a pathetic loser!” She turned to others. “Let’s finish it off! Come on!”

Once more, the group rushed at the Shadow, this time the cuts they were doing seemed more effective as Sumire kept seeing what appeared to be black ooze coming out of the Shadow with each hit, before all of them landed together. The Shadow was no more, turning into a speck of dust.

“Oh shit…!” Kamoshida stared at the group in panic before leaving the room by booking it for the door. 

Ann tried to follow after him, but she quickly fell on her knees. “W-Wait…!”

Ryuji gazed down at her and Sumire, who walked up to the group. “Why’d you two come here, man!? And more importantly, how!?”

“Hey! Is that how you speak to women!?” Morgana said, glaring up at him. 

“U-Um… Takamaki-san had some sort of app on her phone, that’s how we came to the school…” Sumire said, fidgeting.

“What…? She has the app too…?” Morgana’s eyes were widened for a moment, before he quickly shook his head and turned to Ann. “Are you alright, Lady Ann!?”

“Lady Ann…?” Ann said, moving her head up towards Morgana. “Wait, what is this thing? Is it alive? How can it talk?” She glanced around for a moment. “And… Where in the world are we!?”

“J-Just calm down. Everything’s going to be okay; don’t worry.” Morgana said, his eyes opening up fully.

Ann used Morgana’s head as support to stand up on her foot, angrily staring at him. “How am I supposed to calm down!?” She paused for a moment, before glancing at her hand. “H-Huh?” She started touching all over herself, seemingly checking out her clothes for a moment. “Why am I dressed like this!? When did I-” She covered up her exposed chest, crouching down on the ground. “Ugh, what’s with this!?”

  
  


“Calm down, everything’s going to be alright.” Akira said, looking at Ann.

“How can you expect me to be calm!?” Ann yelled, glaring at Akira for a moment before she gazed down at the ground again.

“Well, I’m stumped…” Morgana said, sighing. “A search party will be coming for us soon. There’s no time to explain.” Morgana gazed up at Ryuji. “We don’t have a choice. Let’s retreat for now!”

Ryuji groaned. “We were just gettin’ fired up, and you had to go and get in the way… Rgh, fine…” He walked up to Ann. “Here, give me your arm.” He looked towards Akira. “You take the other side.”

“I-I’m sorry, I couldn’t stop her…” Sumire sighed, watching everyone help Ann up. ‘‘They really don’t need me after all… I’m the one who’s a liability in the end… Why… Why am I so useless…’ Sumire felt herself close to tearing up, but she knew now was not the time to cry. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nope! I'm not late at all! You're late!
> 
> Jokes aside, I apologise for the delay. I am currently occupied with Strikers so I may not write more till I finish the game.
> 
> That aside, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Also, thanks again to chriscruise03 for beta'ing! You rock, dude!


	7. Sense of Worth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things don’t go as smooth as Sumire hoped when it was time to escape...

“Don’t let them escape! Quick!” 

Sumire and the others rushed to the exit as fast as their legs could carry them. More and more shadows started to chase them, with the fear of death now filling her. 

‘I don’t want to die... I don’t want to die!’ were the only words present in Sumire’s head, unable to do anything else but mindlessly follow after Akira and the others.

“I’ll cause a distraction. You guys go on ahead!” Morgana yelled out, staying behind. Sumire stopped to look at him for a moment before closing her eyes and following everyone else. Having reached the room where they could make their escape and hastily shutting the door, there was a moment of silence after everyone helped Ann move, until they all heard what sounded like a vacuum or wind.

“Dammit! What the hell does he think he’s doing!?” Ryuji yelled out.

“W-We have to go back for Morgana-senpai!” Sumire answered back, her eyes wide as she looked at the others in the group.

“Right!” Akira turned to Ann. “Stay here! We’ll go get him-”

Just then, the door slowly opened as Morgana entered, heavily panting as he closed the door behind them. “W-We gotta go before they find-” . He wasn’t able to finish his sentence, collapsing onto the floor instead.

“M-Morgana-senpai!” Sumire immediately rushed over to him. Not long after, she heard the sound of metal clanging approaching the room they were in. ‘N-No.. come on, get up!’ Sumire thought to herself, vigorously shaking Morgana.

“Sumire!” She turned her to Akira when she heard him shout her name. “Grab him!”

She froze in place for a bit, but quickly grabbed Morgana in her arms. She looked at the others as they helped Ann get up on the vent. Moving over to the bookshelf, she raised Morgana as Akira picked him up. Akira offered Sumire his hand to help her up, to which she grabbed onto tight and the group moved through the vents and arrived outside at the castle. 

“D-Did we do it…?” Ryuji asked, panting.

Suddenly, the main doors were knocked open from the inside. Sumire let out a small scream upon seeing dozens of Shadows at the door.

“How did you all escape!? Get over here, you scum!” One of the Shadows yelled out.

“Why’s there so many of them!?” Ann looked at the numerous Shadows in front of them. “Let’s just get out of here!” Having said what was needed, Ann headed for the exit. 

Ryuji pulled Sumire along, prompting her to let out a small ‘eep!’. The Shadows chased after the group and. Soon after, they arrived at the “edge” of the world. Sumire felt like she was going to faint upon her vision warping and nausea overtaking her. Soon after, she found herself in the real word, trying to catch her breath just like the others.

“..Mm…” Ann looked up at the others once she placed her hands on her knees to support herself, noticeably panting heavier compared to the others. 

“Hey, take it easy… You must be still feelin’ tired.” Ryuji said, scratching his head. “Are you okay?”

“Well… Pretty much…” Ann took a deep breath, standing up straight. “Wait, I lied -- I’m still confused about all of this.”

“I thought for sure we were done for…” Sumire’s eyes got a little teary upon this uneventful set of events, closing her eyes to hide her tears. “I-I’m sorry, I’m just feeling a bit tired…” Sumire wiped her eyes. The others looked at her with worry for a moment.

“S-Sorry about that, you guys..” Morgana interrupted the silence, waking up in Akira’s arms. Akira slowly put him to the ground, the feline now looking at others. “That was definitely too close…” He searched the alley they were currently in. “We should go somewhere else. We’re standing out too much in here.”

Everyone looked at each other for a few seconds, before they nodded. 

“Let’s go to the station,” Akira said, picking up Morgana to put him in his bag. Morgana quickly hid himself away and the group headed off to the station.

**. . .**

“So… which one do you want?” Ryuji glanced at Ann, holding three drinks on his chest.

“Um… Whichever’s not carbonated.” Ann replied.

“Uh, they’re all actually.” Ryuji frowned a bit. 

Ann sighed. “Then…” She picked the brown one from Ryuji. “Which one do you want, Yoshizawa?” Ryuji asked, turning to her. 

“Um… this one’s fine…” She picked the strawberry-flavored one. 

“Well, here you go…” Ryuji gave the last one to Akira. 

“What about me?” Morgana poked his head out of Akira’s schoolbag, looking at Ryuji.

“Huh? But you’re a cat.” Ryuji folded his arms. 

Morgana seemed like he was going to say something for a moment, before he turned to Ann. “...Have you calmed down, Lady Ann?”

“Um… Morgana, right?” Ann said, her eyes wide. “I really am talking to a cat… This feels so strange…” She paused as she remembered something. “Oh, sorry! You’re not a cat, right?”

“It’s only natural that you’re confused,” Morgana nodded. “Demanding you understand all of this right after what you went through is asking a bit too much.”

Ann shook her head. “Honestly, I still can’t believe what happened…” She stared at the ground. “And that power… my Persona…”

Sumire looked away to hide her face. ‘Even she could get one…’ She clenched her first. ‘What worth do I have to anyone…?’

“It’s the will of your rebellion, Lady Ann. With it, you’ll be able to fight in that other world.”

“So if what you told me is true, we can make Kamoshida have a change of heart, right?” Ann looked up at Morgana. “Is it really possible? Can we actually force him to confess his crimes?”

Ryuji let go of his arms. “The volleyball team’s keeping quiet about this, while teachers and parents turn a blind eye.” He frowned. “If guys like us try and complain, they’re just gonna shoot us down. Goin’ all in on this plan is the only choice we got.”

Ann turned to Ryuji. “Then let me help too. I want to make him pay for what happened to Shiho. He just keeps going like nothing happened, even after what he did to her…” She paused, breathing in. “I’ll never forgive him.”

Ryuji’s eyes shot up, glancing at Ann. “Wait, did you just say, ‘let me help’? You mean, you want us to take you along?”

“Don’t act like I’m going to drag you down.” Ann shot a glare at him. “Weren’t you watching? I can fight too.”

‘There’s no stopping her..” Sumire painfully sighed.

“Hey… What should we do?” Ryuji said, turning to Akira.

“I think she’ll be great.” He nodded.

“I agree as well. We are lacking in manpower, after all.” Morgana said, frowning a bit. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect her.”

“Even if you said no, I’d just go in alone.” Ann answered back, adjusting her hair.

“Yeah, she would… I couldn’t really convince her earlier today..” Sumire gazed at the ground, feeling guilty for being unable to do the one thing Akira asked her to do.

“Oh right, she can go by herself…” Ryuji scratched his hair. “I guess it’d be more dangerous turnin’ her down…” He let out an annoyed sigh. “Fine...”

“Then it’s decided. Well, I hope we get along!” Ann turned to Akira. “Thank you for reminding of me what we talked about yesterday, Kurusu-kun.” She smiled, but her smile turned into a frown. “ I’m going to make Kamoshida atone for what he did. Not just for Shiho’s sake… but for everything he’s done. I won’t let any more people suffer because of him.” She paused, taking a breath. “I’ll do whatever it takes!”

Akira closed his eyes for a moment, prompting Sumire to glance at him, before he opened his eyes and nodded at Ann. ‘Oh, right… Senpai did say something like that earlier…’ She frowned. ‘She’s much better than me in every regard…’ 

“Just let me know when you’re heading back in… Oh wait! We don’t have each other’s info.” Ann said, adjusting her hair. “Hey, give me your number and chat ID, you three.”

Everyone pulled out their phones from their pockets, while Sumire was the last to do so as she was reluctant. Their phones all rang at the same time, before each of them put it away. “I’ll be counting on you, then,” Ann said, looking at Akira before she smiled. “Same goes for you, Morgana.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Lady Ann,” Morgana said, smiling.

Ann walked away from the group, heading somewhere else, while Sumire felt lost in her train of thoughts. ‘I should’ve not gotten involved with this… I am nothing but trouble for others…’ Sumire decided to walk away to the platform, before she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. “Hey.”

“H-Huh?” Sumire said, turning back to look at who it was. Akira smiled at her. “You did good today, too. Don’t feel so bad, okay?”

“B-But, Senpai… I’m…” She looked down at the ground. “....useless…” She said, in a low voice.

“Nah, you’re not. I can assure you that.” He looked up for a moment, hearing the train announcer speak. “I need to get going, but trust me when I say that you mean a lot to me, and others.” He gave her a grin. “Oh, right. We go home the same way. Come on, let’s go together.”

“O-Okay, Senpai…” Sumire smiled at his kindness as they both boarded the train. It was rather crowded, so they stood next to each other. Sumire occasionally looked at him as they travelled to Shibuya.

“It was rather chaotic, huh?” Akira asked, glancing at her. “I’m just glad we all made it out okay.”

“M-Me too, Senpai…” Sumire puffed. “I don’t want to be in there again… Except you have to, for us…”

“Don’t worry about it. I promise you; we’ll be able to change his heart before time’s up.”

Sumire nodded. “I know you will, Senpai… I just wish I could do more to help as well…”

“Well…” Akira paused for a moment.. “...what you’re doing is more than enough than what other people would do in your situation… But don’t worry, I’ll let you know if I need something, okay?” He shot her a small smile.

“Okay, Senpai…” She smiled back before she felt herself lost within her thoughts again. ‘I know I’m useless, Senpai… You don’t have to be like that…’

The train announcer soon spoke up, indicating they arrived at their destination. They parted ways by waving at each other, with Sumire picking up a different line to get home. By the time she arrived at her house, it was way too late into the evening. She opened the door slowly to see her parents waiting on the couch, an immediate rush of panic filling her. 

‘D-Do they know about it!?’ Sweat formed on Sumire’s forehead, unable to do anything but watch both of her parents stand up and walk over to her.

“Sumire, you arrived way more late than usual.” Her mom stated, looking deeply into her eyes. “Did something happen? Or were you hanging out with your boyfriend?” Akane said, with a slight smile.

“Huh? Uh… I mean, yes… W-Wait! No! He’s not my boyfriend!” Sumire said, looking away as both of her parents laughed. To be honest though, she was actually relaxed, happy to know they weren’t aware of her slated expulsion.

“So? How was it then?” Akane said, smiling.

“I-It was tiring…” Sumire rubbed her eyes, stopping when her stomach growled. 

“You should get changed. We’ll eat soon.” Shinichi stated, patting Sumire on the top of her head.

“R-Right, okay…” With a nod, Sumire went upstairs. ‘T-There’s nothing to worry about. It’ll all be fine…’ 

**. . .**

By the time Sumire ate dinner and went to her room, she collapsed on her bed. ‘I’m glad I don’t have homework… Couldn’t have been able to deal with it…’ Sumire sighed, feeling a slight rush of pain in her chest again, which made herself worry before she got a notification on her phone. Surprisingly, it was from Ann… and only Ann… 

_ Hey, Yoshizawa-san. Are you available to talk? _

‘...Why is she messaging me…? Well, it’d be rude not to respond… ’ Sumire started typing on her phone.

_ Mhm. I’m available. What is it? _

_ Listen… About today… _

_ I wanted to say I’m sorry. I should’ve listened to you, but I didn’t. And overall I was rude towards you. _

_ It’s OK, really! _

‘...Except it isn’t…’

_ Also, I just wanted to say… If you ever wanted to do something together, I’m all up for it! _

_ Although… It’d have to be after we deal with Kamoshida… _

‘Right… You don’t have to remind me…’ Sumire puffed again.

_ Sure, Ann-senpai. _

_ You don’t have to call me senpai… Anyways, see you tomorrow! _

Sumire turned her phone off upon seeing the last message and begrudgingly put her phone on her desk. ‘I don’t deserve their kindness… Why are they helping me like this…?’ With those thoughts in her head, she prepared to go to bed to sleep.

**. . .**

Sumire’s phone buzzed while she was in class. ‘I don’t normally get messages like this at school.. Huh..’ Thankful for choosing a seat at the back of the classroom, she took out her phone to check what it was about. She saw that she was added to a group chat with the others.

Ryuji:  _ Hey, we’re meeting up at the hideout after school, right? _

Ann:  _ Don’t text now. We’re in class. _

_ Yeah, you should focus on class first, Ryuji-senpai. _

Ryuji:  _ Whoa! You mean you’re actually listening to all this crap? _

‘...I guess it’s hard to focus, considering what happened…’

Ann:  _ Yeah, but none of it is really sticking today… _

Ryuji:  _ I know, right? _

Ryuji:  _ Anyways, hideout after school? _

Ann:  _ Where exactly is this ‘“hideout”? _

Ryuji:  _ The school roof. _

Ann:  _ Wait, we can still go up there? _

Ryuji _ : Yeah, I’ll let you in. _

Ryuji:  _ Welp. I’ll be waiting. Just come on up once school’s over. _

_ Should I come too…? _

Ryuji:  _ Of course you should! You’re also a part of this too. _

Akira:  _ Gotcha. I’ll be there _

‘I guess there’s no turning back now…’ Sumire puffed and put her phone away, giving her attention back on the lesson her teacher was on. 

. . .

By the time Sumire arrived at the roof, the others were already there waiting for her. “I-I’m sorry I took so long…” Sumire said, gazing down at the ground. “But… I don’t really have a Persona, s-so…”

“It’s only fair we let you in on what we’ll discuss, y’know.” Ryuji said.

“Don’t worry, milady,” Morgana stated, scratching the back of his ear. “Even if you can’t help directly in the Palace, you can still help us in some other way.”

“H-Huh? Really?” Sumire’s eyes widened, to which Morgana nodded. 

“I’ll explain.”

Sumire walked up to the group, preferring to stand up instead of sitting down on a desk. Morgana looked between them for a bit. 

“Right, we have to prepare, first and foremost.”

“But why? Don’t we just gotta steal that treasure thing?” Ryuji asked, scratching his head.

“Don’t underestimate the dangers of that place. We need to prepare. We barely got out alive yesterday.” Morgana pointed out, now wearing a frown.

“Oh, right…” Ryuji frowned too. “I guess we’d have been in trouble if we tried to fight them at the same time…”

“But… How exactly are we supposed to do that?” Ann glanced at Morgana.

“I’m glad you asked, Lady Ann.” Morgana gave her a loving smile. “First, we’ll need to find better equipment for those who are going with the infiltration.”

“You talkin’ about weapons? Oh, I know a kick-ass place!”

“In that case, you can handle that side of things.” Morgana nodded at Ryuji. “The only other thing would be stocking up on medicine. Fatigue is unavoidable in a Palace…”

“O-Oh! Um…” Sumire suddenly yelled, catching the other’s attention. “Maybe I can cook some food for you guys i-if it would help!” Sumire fidgeted with her fingers.

“That’d be perfect, Yoshizawa! I knew you'd come in handy as well!” Morgana said, smiling. “That should help us with our overall stamina sustain in the Palace. Now, we obviously won’t have much time to eat in the battle…” Morgana licked his paw. “However, we can eat the food if we manage to find a safe spot. The medicine should help if we get hurt in the battle, so we don’t solely have to rely on our Personas to heal.”

“Why do we need medicine for that, though? Can’t we just use our Personas?” Ryuji said, scratching his head.

“Well, yeah. But that means you’d need to use your energy to do so. Not that you have any to begin with since you can’t heal.”

“Hey!” Ryuji angrily stared at Morgana.

“That’s why getting medicine will greatly help us.”

“So… How do we bring the medicine into the Palace?” Akira adjusted his glasses.

“Remember the time I gave you guys medicine on the first day we were escaping? As far as I understand, the items you bring in a bag or something are on your person at all times.” Morgana looked down. “I’m still not sure how it exactly works, but if you just think of the item, it should appear in your hands.”

“I guess I kinda get it… ” Akira shrugged at the explanation. 

“I don’t… But nevermind that. I’ll handle the weapons.” Ryuji also shrugged.

“In the meantime… I’ll see if we can get any other stuff for the Palace. Sweets could go a long way in the exploration!” Ann said, smiling a bit.

“U-Um… when should I m-make the food?” Sumire looked up, her eyes wide.

“Hm….” Morgana looked up at her. “I think it’ll take some time to prepare so… I’d say you should bring it in two days if you can. Don’t sweat it if you can’t.”

“O-Okay… I-I can make it every two days… ” Sumire looked down after answering Morgana. ‘I-I can do this… I-I can be helpful… R-Right…?’

“Then it’s a plan.” Akira nodded. “We still have plenty of time, but let’s meet up on Monday to begin.”

Everyone nodded to each other and left the rooftop. Surprisingly, everyone’s intended destination was Shibuya. It was hard for Sumire to hide her shaky hands the whole time she was on the train, but thankfully no one noticed. From there, everyone parted their ways. 

**. . .**

‘I-I will get this right… I-I can… I-I have to…’

‘Why am I struggling so much…!?’ Sumire felt like she was close to crying. ‘I can easily cook any other time. Why not now..!?’ She tried to cut the onions properly with the knife, but she wasn’t able to do so, almost cutting off her finger in the process.

“Sumire? Is everything okay?” Akane walked into the kitchen. 

Sumire turned to her, with teary eyes. “M-Mom…”

“Why are you so stressed, dear?” Her mom ruffled her hair for a moment. “You can talk to me. What’s wrong?”

“I…” Sumire looked away, wiping her teary eyes. “I-I wanted to… make food… for him and the others… but I can’t…”

“Aw… Here, I’ll help you out, then, if you want to.” She smiled at her.

“M-Mom…” She sniffed. “I’m t-tired… I-I don’t want others constantly helping me…” 

“Ah…” She ruffled Sumire’s hair. “Sumire, you don’t have to try and tackle everything on your own.” She smiled wider at her. “I used to rely on your dad a lot for various other things as well.”

“H-Huh…? R-Really…?” Sumire looked at her mom, her eyes widening slightly.

“Mhm-hm! I can understand how you don’t want to rely on others, but trust me, there is nothing wrong with that. Here, I’ll help out just a bit, okay?”

“..O-Okay…” Sumire nodded. ‘...Mom… I wish I could tell you.. I’m so sorry…’ She felt like she was going to tear up again, but she quickly held them back and went back to cutting the fruits with her mom now assisting her. It was going smoothly so far, with her mom praising her that she’s doing a good job and that it’d turn out great. 

‘...I-I hope it will… I won’t forgive myself if it doesn’t…’ 

By the time they were done, it was nearing the afternoon. Sumire packed up the food in various containers and put them in the fridge to store them.

“I think it turned out pretty well, sweetie!” Akane giggled, poking Sumire’s nose to which she blushed. 

“I-I hope so too, mom…”

“Come on, cheer up now!” Akane went to tickle Sumire, to which she uncontrollably started laughing. 

“M-Mom! S-Stop!” She kept on her laughing fit for a bit, trying to cover herself from her mom’s assault. ‘...Maybe those will be the last laughs I’ll have in a while…’ was all Sumire thought of, upon her mom stopping. She headed to her room for the time being, distracting herself by doing some core exercises… but it was to no avail. ‘What if they don’t like the food…? What if it won’t taste good…?’

  
  


**. . .**

Sumire made sure to heat up the food first prior to covering them with aluminum foil to preserve their heat and placed them in her bag. With a long sigh, she went to leave home, shocked to see her mom blocking the door.

“Not so fast, princess!” She said, smiling a bit to adjust her hair. “You gotta look your best if you want to impress your friends! Especially him~!”

“M-Mom…” She blushed, looking away. “Fine…”

“Now make sure to smile, okay?”

“...Okay.” Sumire nodded at her mom, who stepped to the side to let her leave. ‘I didn’t even react to my mom teasing me like usual before… What’s wrong with me…? Now she’ll get the wrong idea…’

After what felt like an eternity to her, she finally arrived at the school gates. However, she spotted Kamoshida at the entrance, her heart now beating faster with anger and fear. She tried to ignore him and quickly move past, but…

“Oh, good morning to you, Yoshizawa!” He greeted her, venom in his voice.

She didn’t even turn to look at him and instead proceeded to walk up the stairs.

“You know, that’s the type of attitude I love seeing from others when they don’t listen to me and they suffer because of it!”

‘...Just you wait… You’ll regret the day you ever messed with me…’ Sumire firmly grabbed her bag, applying a little too much pressure as she made her way to her class to wait for the lecture to start. She felt it hard to keep her attention to her surroundings till the class finally started.

**. . .**

It wasn’t long before her phone buzzed. She couldn’t help herself but sneakily check out her phone while the teacher was writing something on the board.

Ryuji:  _ So I saw Kamoshida at the school gate this morning. _

Ryuji:  _ He was just standing there looking at me with this shit-eating grin on his face. _

Sumire clenched her phone in anger, before she started typing.

_ Me too. He just told me “That’s the type of attitude I love seeing from others”... _

Akira:  _ I saw him as well. Bastard really thinks he’s high and almighty. _

Ann:  _ Ugh, that’s annoying… It seems like he’s trying to get under our skin. _

Ryuji:  _ Honestly, seeing that got me even more fired up about this. _

Ryuji:  _ We’re definitely going to pull this off. _

Ann:  _ Yeah, I’m worried about Shiho, but I want to concentrate on our operation too. _

Ann:  _ And I won’t let myself get exhausted like last time. _

Ryuji:  _ The board meeting’s May 2nd, right? _

Ryuji:  _ We just gotta take care of him before then. _

_ We’re meeting up today at the roof, right? _

Akira:  _ Yeah. I’m ready for it. I hope you all are as well. _

Ryuji:  _ I’m ready! _

Ann:  _ I’m ready as well! _

_ I have the food prepared as well. I made sure to heat it up before coming to school. _

Ryuji:  _ Sweet! Thanks a lot, Yoshizawa! That should be really helpful! _

Ann:  _ Mhm! That should do! _

Akira:  _ Thanks, Sumire. _

‘...But you guys didn’t even taste the food yet… Don’t say that to make me feel better…’

_ It’s no problem. Anyway, I have to focus. Later. _

Sumire put away her phone and continued to take her notes for the day.

Sumire arrived at the roof entrance, seeing that others had just come based on how they were moving towards the meeting spot. “Oh, Yoshizawa!” Ryuji turned around to wave at her.

“H-Hey…” Sumire weakly waved back and walked up to the group. “I, um… I made sure to heat up the food first so that it still tastes good… O-Oh, I said that already before in the group chat...” Sumire placed her bag on the table, pulling out the containers from it and arranging them in a presentable fashion. “I… I wasn’t sure what everyone liked, so I made sure to add variety…” She took her bag and quickly went to walk away without saying a word, freezing in place when she felt a hand on her shoulder again. Turning around, she saw that it was Akira himself.

“I really appreciate your help, Sumire. Thank you so much.” Akira smiled at her.

“Yeah!” Ann also sent her a smile. “Thank you so much, Yoshizawa-san!”

“We could go on practically forever with this amount of food in that Palace!” Ryuji gave her a thumbs up.

“Milady, we’ll be sure that your efforts will not go to waste. You have my word!” Morgana smiled up at her.

“E-Everyone….” Sumire felt tears in her eyes, looking away to hide them. “T-Thank you…!” She wiped her eyes, turning towards the group again. “G-Good luck, everyone…” With a warm smile, she left. ‘Now all I have to worry about for now is my gymnastics…’ Sumire headed for the train station, unable to hide her smile even as she walked out of the school. ‘They really do appreciate me… I should do much better next time…’

**. . .**

“Akira? Something wrong? You were just standing around all of a sudden.” Morgana frowned a bit.

‘...So to them it looks like I spaced out.’ Akira thought to himself.

“Why’re you spacin’ out like that?” Ryuji scratched his head. “It’s hard to tell what you are thinkin’ sometimes.”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” He said, smirking at them.

“Let’s just say he’s a man of high caliber.” Morgana jumped from the ground. “We’re counting on you, Joker!”

Akira nodded. “Let’s get to work, in that case.”

“So, where do we start?” Ryuji let go of his hands.

“Let’s head to the safe room we found last time. It’s on the first floor of the west building.” Morgana folded his arms. “That’s pretty close to our usual entrance. It should be a pretty decent starting point.”

“Safe room?” Ann asked, gazing down.

“It’ll make sense when we get there. Come on, let’s get going.”

“Actually, before that…” Morgana said, catching the group’s attention. “When we first discover a safe room and enter it, we can register it as a place we can travel to.” Morgana looked up at Akira. “Can you show me your phone for a moment?”

“Sure.” Akira took out his phone from his pocket, showing it to Morgana. “Why did you want to see it?”

“Hmmm…. I think you can enter the location name if we’re within the Palace, so we can quickly travel around the safe rooms we had entered before. Try it out.” Morgana said, glancing up at him.

“Alright.” Akira turned on the Metanav. “First floor, west building.”

“Destination confirmed. Beginning quick travel.” The Metanav suddenly spoke up, surprising everyone for a moment. The reality around them warped for a few seconds before they all ended up in the safe room they had previously found. It seemed like it turned into a classroom as it returned back to a meeting room.

“Huh? What’s up with this place?” Ann asked as she observed the room.

“It’s a gap in the cognition. A safe room, if you will.” Morgana said, with a tiny smile.

“...Yeah, still not getting it.” Ann looked down.

“Right?” Ryuji said, frowning. “Uhh, I’m fuzzy on the details, but I think it’s some kinda spot where Shadows can’t find us.”

“Huh… I didn’t think a place like that existed here.” Ann looked up. “So, what do we do in this ‘safe room’?”

“Take a break, duh.” Ryuji folded his arms. “Oh, and we talk about stuff too.”

“So… The place is for resting up and plotting… Got it.” Ann turned to others. “Well, I’m still pretty energetic, so we can go rest later, right?”

“Yeah.” Akira nodded. “Let’s just keep exploring for now.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi! I apologise for the delay! I will have exams coming up soon so I'm not sure how much more I will be able to write until they are done. That said, thank you for reading so far and thank you to chriscruise03 as usual!


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